Transformers: MTMTE- Season II
by Kris-dragon
Summary: Second season. After putting a stop to Megatron's plans, the Autobts have to face the Decepticons as their attacks become even more relentless. New enemies arrive. But also new allies join the battle. Can the Autobots win the war that has been brought to Earth? Or will humanity be enslaved?
1. 01- Battlefield Cybertron- part 1

**-01-**

**Battlefield Cybertron**

**-part 1-**

How could things have gone like this? The Decepticons have learned Stonehenge was actually a space-bridge, the ancient Cybertronian transportation device. They have been gathering Earth technology to make it operational in order to bring Megatron Absolute's army to conquer Earth. There was only one thing missing- the Element. And there was only one thing on the entire planet they could get it from- the Hate Plague. But the Autobots managed to destroy the bridge, so Megatron released the contained substance. Optimus Prime, in order to stop the plague from infecting the planet, used the power of the Matrix of Leadership to destroy it. Unfortunately, enough of it survived to infect him.

Now, as Nemesis Prime, he runs who knows where. For all the Autobots know, he could be hurting the innocents. Yet for some reason Teletraan I can't locate him. Ratchet came up with a theory that the Hate Plague must've corrupted his signal too much. Just what they needed.

It's been two days now. Ironhide and Bulkhead looked at the container in which they placed their lost comrade- Hot Ride. He gave up his spark to rescue Optimus, proving himself in their optics he truly was no longer the 'Con spy Sideswipe. The red-and-dark grey sergeant slammed his fists together in rage.

"My fluids are boiling!" he growled. "We already lost a good soldier! How long must it take before we are forced to add Prime to the list?!"

That question got Bulk's attention. "Uh, Ironhide? You're not thinking of taking Optimus down. Are you?"

Ironhide turned to face the ex-Wrecker. With that scar on his faceplate, he really made Bulkhead step back. The sergeant snarled, before calming down a bit. "No... I mean... What I mean is: will we be able to save Optimus? Or will we be forced to add him to our dead comrades? I am not looking forward to it if we'll have to take him down."

"I am sure Ratchet will come up with something." Bulkhead said, trying- key word 'trying'- to sound optimistic. However, Ironhide scoffed.

"He'd better get the job done. Or the doc will need a doc." He growled, walking out of the room of the fallen. He shook his head, growling again. Bulk sighed in some relief. He couldn't blame the sergeant for his pessimism.

As the ex-Decepticon entered the command room, he found Ratchet and Jazz both working by the panels, while Teletraan I was working on locating Optimus. They've been working virtually none stop. Ratchet would stay by the panel typing, while Jazz, the minute he found something, would open the ground-bridge and go to investigate and confirm whether or not it's their leader. While Ironhide was all ready to step in as well, the other Bots were uneasy. By the looks in the chief medical officer and the Autobot second-in-command's optics, the two did not have any rest. But unlike humans, the Cybertronian fatigue was in the form of low level of energon and system overheating. And these two were in a serious need for rest.

* * *

**Decepticon Island**

Soundwave kept typing at the computer panel as well. Megatron Absolute demanded the Prime to be found. The communications officer did not know what the Lord of Decepticons had planned, but he was not foolish enough to ask.

Unlike some other 'Cons.

"Lord Megatron. I must ask- why search for the Prime?" Starscream, the Decepticon second-in-command asked. "Now that the Autobots are without him and are surely to seek him, we should take the opportunity and gather energon by raiding the human power facilities."

"Because, Starscream, Prime will prove to be a great asset." Megatron answered, as he entered the room, which once was a bridge of his once-great flagship- the Nemesis.

"The way I see it this is stupid." The Seeker said. And that was exactly why Soundwave proffered to keep things to himself. The comment earn Starscream a powerful slap. One that sent him flying through the wall. Little sparks flew in comparison to the pain the flyer felt from the assault. When he hit the floor he could barely move. The pain nearly overloaded his systems. He managed to focus his optics to find Megatron stand before him with his fusion cannon aimed right at him. Starscream yelped at the sight, trying to pass through the wall he hit just a few seconds ago.

"Never. Question. Me. Again. Starscream." The silver-and-black Decepticon warlord threatened, before he lowered his weapon and turned back to Soundwave. "Soundwave. How goes your search?"

"Reporting: Search for Optimus Prime, now identified as Nemesis Prime, results in a negative." Sooundwave reported in his usual, more synthetic and emotionless for a Cybertronian voice. "Observation: Target may have found an alternative vehicle mode to repair damage. Suggestion: We should deploy Ratbats programmed to search for energon."

Megatron thought about that. Indeed, Optimus suffered some damage during the fight at Stonehenge. Since he had no access to the CR chamber, finding and scanning for a new vehicle mode was the only thing he could do for repairs. Of course, the repairs would not be full, but if the damage was small enough...

"Deploy the Ratbats immediately, Soundwave." He ordered. "Also, inform Barricade and Ravage on the new information."

"Understood." The communications' officer replied, reprogramming the bat-like drones. As their optics flashed after the upload, they detached from their stations and took off. Even if they had to search the whole planet, they would find the Prime.

* * *

**Jasper**

Mr. Ting, or Mr. Farting as Miko dubbed him due to his name, was still talking about the Siege of York Town during the American Revolution. As that took place, the said Japanese student just turned on her MP3 player and, as usual, pretended to listen. If one thought she was just ignoring the world, that someone would be mistaking. She was more concerned about the Autobots and their leader, Optimus Prime. There was no news for a month now. The Bots rarely showed up, which meant rarely being at the base. She started to fear the worst.

So, Miko reached for her phone and typed a text message to Jack, asking if he got any news from Arcee or any of the Autobots. It took a few minutes before she got the response: _'The same as the last few hundred- no_'. Did she really send this many? She shrugged.

Finally, the bell rang. The students were exiting the classrooms, filling the hallway. Miko locked her locker after putting back a notebook and leaned on it. Soon she saw the very people she was waiting for.

One of them was a twelve-year-old genius, Rather short for his age. Rafael Esquivel, for that was his name, had spiky brown hair and red glasses. He also wore an orange vest over a white shirt, blue jeans and red sneakers.

Next was a very tall and muscular African American with long dreads- Terry O'Neil. He was wearing a green T-shirt, army-type pants and boots. The guy had investigator skills, yet for all his work, he found no trace of Optimus as well. But it was the teen between the two she was looking forward to seeing to.

Jack Darby, her ex-boyfriend, a super-genius, and the one who still had some actual contact with the Bots. All because of Arcee, who was clearly attached to Jack. The teen was of average height, with black hair and a little paler skin tone than anyone else living in this town. The teen was now wearing a black T-shirt, the usual blue jeans and black sneakers. Also, Jack cut down his hair just the previous day. Now they were much shorter. That made Miko quite sad as she liked his hairdo.

Putting that aside, she approached the trio. And they easily saw her. Miko Nakadai, the hyperactive rebellious- no, wild- Japanese exchange student. She had shoulder-long black hair with pink dyed highlights, tied loosely in a pony-tail and two pig-tails. Also, she was dressed in a pink T-shirt under a blue top, blue shorts with a black-and-pink belt decorated with some doll-like ornaments, pink-and-black striped stockings and boots.

"So, any luck in helping the Autobots, dudes?" she asked.

"No." Raf's shoulders dropped.

"Nothin'." Terry answered.

"Unfortunately not." Jack finished. As that wasn't what she wanted to hear, the punk girl gave the three a glare so intense, the two younger teens actually backed a bit, while Terry just arced his brow, finding her glare amusing.

"Dudes. Are you serious?" She barked. "If Optimus isn't back quick and the Bots don't start coming for us like they did before this mess, I'm gonna go crazy!"

Terry just had to comment on that. "So, you weren't all crazy before then?"

Miko humped at the comment. The nerve.

"M-Miko. I-I'm sure the Bots a-are trying their best to f-find Optimus." Raf said.

"I know." Miko said, surprisingly calmly. Now worry was present on her face. "I just don't want to think Megatron-teme may do just that before us." Her shoulders dropped. "And I miss Bulkhead already." Now she was on the verge of tears.

"Hey, hey no, Miko." Jack started, embracing her in a reassuring hug. The two may have broken up, but were still surprisingly close. "It's okay. We'll be back at the Ark soon. You'll see."

She sniffed, finding comfort in his embrace. "Promise?" she asked, looking up at him.

Jack chuckled. "Hey, if we're not there when they find Optimus, you can always give Ratchet your musical performance." He joked. Miko returned the hug now. Then he pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open. "I gotta get to work. Remember: Anyone gets the news from the Autobots calls the rest." The raven teen instructed the rest, making his way to the exit. Once outside, Raf coughed.

"You think he's right?" the preteen asked.

"Hey, at least he's holding onto faith." The Japanese girl scolded. "We can't lose our faith."

"Maybe." The muscular African American said. "But it doesn't mean that tomorrow they will find him."

"Why so negative, dude?"

"Think about it, Miko. Why do you think the Bots still haven't found Optimus?"

The two gave it a thought. "Um... they lost his number?" Miko asked.

"Maybe... Optimus changed his appearance." Raf guessed.

"Well that's out of the way." Terry agreed.

Then Teletraan will lock onto his energon signature." Miko said out loud. And that's when it hit Raf.

"Not if the Hate Plague somehow is interfering with the broadcast."

"You mean it, I dunno, changed its frequency or something?" Terry asked.

"Exactly." The short kid answered. "So basically Optimus is invisible to their systems, because his like a completely different Cybertronian."

"Oh. So finding him will take time..." Miko looked down at her feet, again. She was now feeling defeated. Raf pulled her arm and gave her a warm reassuring smile. And Terry padded her on the shoulder, looking at her with confidence.

"We just have to be patient. Otherwise, we lose it." Terry said. Miko smiled again, wiping a single tear off her cheek.

* * *

**Darby house**

Jack put down the needle. How he hated the energon injections. He loathed them. He looked in the mirror, watching as his veins and eyes glowed blue for a few seconds, before returning to normal. But the sensation of his body suddenly burning and freezing at the same time did not pass just as soon. That took longer. How he wished he didn't had to take them. However, it was thanks to these shots that he was still alive. The Mechanists of Evolution and Cybernation of Humanity- a.k.a. M.E.C.H.- the terrorist group of fanatics intending on ascending humanity to godhood, were responsible for his condition. In an attempt to create a perfect being, they altered his genes, causing them to be unstable. Now the energon was the only certain thing to stabilize him.

"The shot, Jackson?" a feminine voice asked. Jack turned to his door, to find his older sister and legal guardian, Kelly, enter his room. She was an inch or taller than her brother, with shoulder-long raven black hair and tanned skin and athletic, but no less attractive body.

Jack sighed as the burning/freezing sensation finally passed. "Just took it." He responded. "But hearing about Optimus would make me feel better." His voice was filled with sorrow. Kelly noticed that and felt bad. She quickly approached her brother and patted him on the back.

"Don't worry. I'm sure the Bots are doing their best to find him." She reassured her little brother. Jack felt a little more at ease hearing that, though he was clearly rather not so convinced. So, she wrapped her arm around his neck and wrestled him into submission. "Hey! I said they'll find him! Have some faith, for cryin' out loud!" she yelled. Jack struggled for a bit, unable to break free at first. It's been a while since the two last wrestled like this. In the past, Kelly would often assault him like that, mainly to keep his skills taught by grandpa and dad sharp. After all, both were military.

Jack decided that was enough of that. He grabbed Kelly's arm and freed himself. Despite his skinny appearance, Jack was much stronger than that. Not as strong as Terry, but still impressively strong. Strong enough to break Kelly's hold on him with some ease. Then the situation turned and he was the one to have a hold on her. Kelly tried to break free, but her brother actually wouldn't let go.

"Okay, okay. I give." She submitted, feeling a little pain. Jack saw that and quickly let her go.

"Sorry." He apologized. He got up and helped his sister get up. "Anyway, I do trust them, sis. You know I do. It's just..." he paused, thinking a bit.

Kelly finished the thought for him. "You wish you could do something to help. Is that it?"

"Y-yeah." The raven haired teen answered. Kelly ruffled his haired.

"I'm sure that you'll come up with something, Jack. All four of you. But, as grandpa would say, if you truly want to help them, you must first believe in them. While it's normal and noble to support your close ones, sometimes you need to let them do things without you. Otherwise they will lose their independent strength."

Jack remembered these words. Their grandfather used them sometime before his death. He knew what they meant. Yes, the Bots could do this on their own. They were not like children. They knew what they were doing. So unless him, Miko, Terry or Raf had anything that might help the Bots in their search, it'd be for the best not to distract them.

"Thanks sis."

"You're welcome." She smiled. "Now I need some rest. I have to go take an early shift tomorrow at the hospital." With that, she exited Jack's room.

Now the teen sat on his bed and was in deep thought. He couldn't focus though. And some reason something troubled him. He reached to the pocket and pulled out a triangle-shaped metallic shard. It was silvery white and had blue runes illuminating his dark room. He couldn't explain it, but for some strange reason it seemed to whisper to him. And as he continued looking at it, Jack had a feeling being one with it, getting a glimpse beyond time and space. There was a moment he felt as if being outside his material body. As if the stars were right beside him, and the aspects of time, the past, the present and the future, were nothing more than words of ignorance. Jack could not get his eyes off the shard, yet felt as if floating somewhere beyond the realm. Not the realm of life and death, but a much, much bigger place. One beyond all existence.

Then something flashed. It was a bit painful and certainly unpleasant. He saw figures, Cybertronians maybe, but more primitive: as if in an early stage. Then he saw some monstrous faces and jellyfish. He felt sorrow seeing the Cybertronians shooting. Another flash passed as he saw a huge figure with spiky shoulders ripping out a spark, laughing insanely. Finally a horned planetoid on the horizon of a burning Cybertron.

Jack finally snapped out of the trans. He was sweating and breathing hard. He looked at the clock on the desk in his room. It was seven in the morning? Was he really out for over 9 hours just watching this thing? Just what was that?

His phone suddenly rang. Jack actually thought about changing the ringtone. He looked at the id flashing on the phone, surprised a little at who was calling.

"Raf?" he answered.

"/_I think I know how to find him?_/" the preteen answered.

* * *

**The Ark**

The ground-bridge flashed as Arcee and Bulkhead drove through with the humans. As the humans got off or out, allowing them to transform, Raf ran to the computer panel in the human zone. And immediately started to type. Ratchet got a little annoyed with the kids' presence. But also got very curious.

"What are you doing here?" the medic asked, as Raf continued.

Terry started explaining. "While searching the web yesterday, I ran on an image of a truck running out of the airport in Washington. The reports mentioned it to be driverless. I felt the need to do some digging and found out there was a transport for some rich man collecting trucks."

"However, there was something off." Raf continued. "After the plane landed, turns out one of the trucks was different than after loading them. We believe it's Optimus."

"So we know he's in the country." Jazz stated, rubbing his chin. "The question is how do we find him?"

"Well, we could put a energon drive-through." Arcee joked.

"Actually, I thought we may be able to isolate his energy signature." Raf said, as the big screen flashed, showing every energy signature in the country. Raf started narrowing down the search.

"Now, we know we are not looking for the cities or anything that big. Which also means we must increase the sensors' sensitivity to maximum." Jack said, as the majority of the flashing points shrank or disappeared.

"Now, we know we're looking for a truck and a Cybertronian." Raf said. "We can't focus on finding Optimus's signal specifically. However, his energy signature should still be either Cybertronian, familiar to Cybertronians or, at the very least, unusual in comparison to any Earth energy profile." Raf typed it, and pressed enter.

Slowly, yet surely, the points have been disappearing. All the Autobots were looking at the screen with widening Optics. Could they get anywhere nearer? In a matter of minutes, all the points disappeared.

All except for on.

"Got him!" Ratchet cheered, running to the ground-bridge control, typing in the coordinates.

"Autobots! Roll out!" Jazz ordered. Bumblebee bleeped 'yes sir' as he transformed. In a matter of seconds, all the Bots, aside from Ratchet, were in their vehicle modes. In a matter of seconds, the vortex of green and gold lights appeared, illuminating the golden and silver room the team was in. And the Cybertronians rode off into the ground-bridge, hoping to get to their leader.

* * *

**Somewhere in Virginia**

A dark blue-and-crimson LoneStar Harley-Davidson Special Edition rode down the road, towards who knows where. Dust rose as it sped up, not caring about the speed limits. There was something weird about that truck. Something dark. Malevolent. The way it rode was just vicious. If anyone was to see it, one would believe it would run over anyone without remorse.

The truck was then followed by a white motorcycle, a dark grey-and-red BISON, a yellow Suzuki Swift S-concept, a green Hummer and a white Lamborghini Vereno. The mirror of the truck shifted, finding a silver-and-red Grumman F-111B incoming from above. The truck turned and rode into the forest. The Autobots followed. There was no way they were gonna lose him. They raced with the truck, until finally Arcee and Bumblebee got ahead of it and cut off the escape route. The truck came to a sudden stop, as the Autobots transformed. Bulkhead checked the scanner, which was now glowing like a... what was it again? A Christmas tree?

"It's him alright." Bulkhead confirmed. Jazz nodded in recognition.

"Optimus." Jazz started. "You're sick. We need you to come with us for treatment."

"Yeah." Jetfire started. "All we want is for ya to get back from being all dark and creepy back to your usual boring, mambo jumbo-talking, stoic self."

That's when the truck transformed. Now in the middle of the crowd, stood a 36-foot tall Cybertronian with the windshields on its chest. Prime had the smoke stacks on his shoulders, and two wheels between them, while the other four were on his legs- two formed his knee-joints and two in his calves. The figure looked at the Autobots with red, anger-filled optics, as the new face-guard plates shifted. The Autobots knew the way they positioned as a snarl.

"Me? Sick?" he asked. The Bots took their stance, ready for him to attack. All they received was a maniacal laughter. "But I have never felt better in my life."

"Optimus, please." Arcee asked.

"I am Nemesis Prime, foolish femme!" the tall Cybertronian snapped, leaping at the white Autobots. Aside from the obvious color scheme change, the voice, despite still holding its great wisdom, now sounded so full of anger. Arcee was luckily able to dodge it. Given her size and slim build, she was agile enough to outmaneuver Optimus- Nemesis as he was now calling himself. Still, the big Cybertronian managed to deliver a strong roundhouse kick to her face. As sparks flew, the cyber-ninja femme was sent flying into the trees. Bulkhead and Bumblebee stepped in, betting the two of them would get Prime off guard and outnumber him. However, Nemesis reached for the left smoke stack and it transformed into an energon axe, which he dug deep into Bulkhead's shoulder. As the ex-Wrecker cried in pain, Bumblebee got caught by the head. The scout's blaster shot in the air, as he tried to get free. Nemesis delivered three devastating blows to the scout's midsection before taking hold on his axe again. Then he tossed the scout at the incoming Arcee, who attempted a flying kick from behind.

"Oh man." Jetfire complained. "This was supposed to be just a simple 'get the little ol' Prime back home for some energon stew' mission. And now we're having a Cybertronian smack down. Oh, I knew I should of stayed at base." Oh well, he's here. Might as well do something. He pulled out his rifle, only for Nemesis Prime to toss Bulkhead at him. The two were now flying into the small cliff in the rain of sparks. The two giants rolled down, in pain.

Ironhide snarled at the sight. Normally he'd do his best to safe the Prime. But at the moment, he was actually glad to give into his Decepticon self- the lust for battle. Oh how he _waited_ for an excuse to actually go up against the Prime. He dashed at Nemesis Prime, pulling out his shotgun in his left servo and revealing his plasma-thrower in the left. The sergeant opened fire. Nemesis Prime dashed at his opponent, clearly thrilled, unlike Optimus who would always keep a stoic face. Even though Ironhide hit every time, his enemy didn't seem to give a care. This only got Ironhide even more thrilled. Until Nemesis Prime parried his shotgun, reaching for his right smoke stack, which transformed into an ion rifle. The corrupt Prime aimed directly in Ironhide's face and was about to pull the trigger, when an energon butterfly knife hit it. Nemesis Prime turned to his right to see who attacked him and got sucker punched in the face. The dark blue-and-crimson Cybertronian stumbled back a bit, before regaining his balance. He looked up ahead and got kicked in the face. Jazz did not pause there this time. He dashed at Nemesis Prime and started to pummel him in the midsection mercilessly. The speed of his attack, considering the silver-and-black Autobot's size was astonishing even to the Autobots around. Then, for the finish, Jazz leaped back, delivering a strong kick to the chin. Nemesis almost fell, losing his balance. Ironhide rushed in, tackling the corrupt Prime and nailing him to the ground. Jazz joined in and the two held the Prime pinned to the ground, though they had to struggle real hard.

However, for all their struggle, fate seemed not so cooperative. Nemesis was slowly pushing them off. But he needed not to. A ground-bridge opened not too far from their position and the last Cybertronian they wanted to see appeared.

Megatron Absolute, the Lord of Decepticons. The giant 36 foot tall, mostly black Cybertronian with a silver torso and a bucket helmet. His insignia blazed purple, whilst the other lights, like his optics, were blood red and screaming psychotic. He looked at the two Autobots nailing Optimus/ Nemesis and aimed at them. With just two shots from his fusion cannon, Megatron blasted the Autobots off of Prime, slowly making his way towards him. Nemesis Prime got up by the time his brother got next to him. The two stared at each other with strength in both their optics. Tension was building, making all organic creatures around run for their lives, as if sensing the upcoming cataclysm. But it son vanished when the two shook their hands.

"So, you finally came to have me by your side, Megatron." Nemesis Prime mocked the Decepticon lord.

He merely smirked. "Don't get full of yourself, brother." He talked back. "I merely believe our cause will benefit more with you on our side. Now come, Optimus. Or should I say: Nemesis Prime?"

The corrupt Autobot leader nodded with an arrogant smile and followed Megatron towards the ground-bridge. Arcee got back on her legs just in time to see Megatron about to enter the vortex. Her optics widened in shock and rushed towards Optimus. "NO!" she cried. She wanted him to stop. But it only earned her a shot through the right leg. She cried in pain, rolling on the ground. She tried to recall her cyber-ninja training to overcome the sensation, but couldn't focus. The last thing she saw with her blue optics was her leader, her great Prime, enter the vanishing ground-bridge.

And then darkness took her.

* * *

**The Ark**

Arcee's sensors finally rebooted. Slowly her optics came online. And just when she noticed the dark chamber opening. She still felt a bit heavy and painful, but at least she was done in the CR chamber. She clumsily stepped out of the cylinder-like chamber, almost falling to the floor. But managed to find support in the form of their medic. She looked up at Ratchet, who helped her up as she found her balance.

"Careful, Arcee." He said. "You suffered quite a damage. I had to change a motor and a few circuits."

"Thanks, Ratchet." She said with a smile. "And, ah, ouch."

"Don't worry, Arcee." Jack said from the human area, looking at her. "Ratchet said you'll still be in some pain. But other than that you're 100% a go."

"Still my pride is hurt." She said with a said tone. Then added with anger: "And we failed to safe Optimus."

"It wasn't your fault." Agent Fowler, the liaison between the Autobots and the government, said. "You guys were sucker-punched by the bad King Con."

"Doesn't change the fact we lost the battle." Ironhide snarled, slamming his fist in the nearest control panel, scaring everyone aside for Jazz.

Ratchet also wasn't scared. Rather annoyed. "Ironhide...!"

"What?! You needed that?!" the sergeant snapped. "You're worrying about some tools you can always fix or replace while Optimus is not only still gone mad, but also landed in Megatron's clutches right before our optics?!"

At the sound of that Ratchet turned solemn as well. Ironhide had a point. "I am... sorry. I just... am not as disciplined or... strong-willed as Optimus and Jazz." He explained himself. Then all optics turned to Jazz, who was in deep thought. Never have the Autobots seen him act serious for this long. Apparently the lost of their Prime had a stronger impact on him then they thought.

"Well, now at least we know where Prime is." Jazz started, turning to the only screen in the room which would always display the world map. And one spot was most significant. "The problem is... the electromagnetic field make it impossible for us to enter there." He growled.

* * *

**The Decepticon Island**

All the Decepticons assembled in a big room. The majority of them were the drones, the Vehicons. The black-and-purple sparkless robots with limited intelligence which formed the bulk of the army. But there was a small group of Decepticons who formed the brains of this army.

Two of them were the other three Seekers- Thundercracker and Skywarp. The former was blue with the cockpit window on the right arm and a more rounded helmet. The latter was black-and-purple, with his wings folded downwards rather than upwards like Starscream, had more serious expression and was a bit taller than the other two. Aside from these details, they were similar to Starscream in appearance.

Then there was Airachnid, the only femme in the Decepticon army here on Earth. She was 24 foot tall, making her two feet taller than Arcee. Had a lean build and heeled feet. Her armor was mostly dark green with yellowish highlights and purple optics. But the most distinguished feature s of hers were the horns like those of Disney's Maleficent and six spider-like legs on her back.

Next to her stood the hunter of the legion- Barricade. He was for the most part scarlet, powerful build, with golden face-plate. He made himself a reputation for toying and torturing his prey during the hunts. And the most annoying, in Airachnid and Starscream's opinion, was his antic to address himself in third person. Nevertheless, he was one of Megatron Absolute's greatest warriors.

Also, somewhere in the crowd stood Knockout, the medical officer. He was lean with broad shoulders, red in color theme with flame-pattern. He was obsessive about his looks and hardly ever truly bothered fighting, not wanting his paintjob scratched.

Aside from Soundwave, the purple Decepticon with a screen on his chest, and Starscream, there was one more Decepticon by Megatron's side. The muscles of the army- Genocide. A massive Cybertronian, towering even Megatron. He was a real giant with beast-like appearance, rather than human. And due to his size, he was the only Cybertronian who needed to split in two to switch to his vehicle mode. Another thing worth of notice to all was his inability to talk like the others. Rather he let out some growls, snarls and roars, like an animal.

Megatron looked down at his servants, taking his time before addressing them. "My Decepticons! We are on the verge of victory! Just a few days ago the space-bridge has been destroyed, yes. However, in the process, Optimus Prime has been infected with the Hate Plague. Due to using the Matrix of Leadership earlier to save this planet form it, he made himself vulnerable to it. As a result, he ended up changed. Now... the Autobots are leaderless. They are broken. And soon they shall fall. They shall be destroyed by our newest brother-in-arms..." he stepped aside, allowing a new figure to step into few. A massive gasp filled the room when the 'Cons saw the new figure.

"Nemesis Prime!" Megatron called. Silence suddenly filled the room. The Decepticons seemed to be waiting for this dark Optimus to say something. And soon they heard him speak.

"Freedom is the delusion of all sentient beings." Nemesis Prime said. "And soon, the Autobots and humans shall fall before the greatness of the Decepticons!" he slammed his fist at the railing. And the Decepticons cheered.

Megatron Absolute smiled. As well as Nemesis, sensing the upcoming victory.

Little did any of them know, the other was thinking of the victory differently.

**To be conti...**

**Somewhere in Colorado...**

Four kids were playing on the street, on their way out of school. The fat one threw a snowball at the kid in an orange jacket and a green cap and hit him. "Ha ha! You're dead." He laughed.

"No I'm not." He denied.

"Yes you're dead. Those are the rules."

"Wait you guys." The one in a brown jacket and a blue cap stopped the two. "You hear something?" he got them and the one in the orange hoodie to listen in. soon they could hear it. Something like a whistle. They looked up to see a faint light in the sky. Soon it got closer and Bumblebee's missed shot finally hit, turning the orange hoodie-wearing kid into a burning mass of blood. The other three kids were shocked.

"I MY GOD! THEY KILLED KENNY!" Stan cried.

"YOU BASTARDS!" Kyle cursed.

**Now to be continued...**

* * *

**A.N.: Howdy, everyone. I said I'll bring in the second season by May 21st, when it's a year after I posted season I. But I decided, to hell with it. The start may not be as exciting as I hoped for, but no worries. The next parts will be written a lot better. I promise. And I bet you can tell by the chapter title what's comin' up. That's right. Cybertron's comin'. And there will be several new characters. Now, I do have some in mind, but if you'd like some of your favorites to make an appearance, at least for the sake of their existence in this universe, let me know. Until then... ciao.**

**My cast:**

**Optimus Prime/ Nemesis Prime- Peter Cullen**

**Jazz- Khary Payton**

**Ratchet- Brandon Keener (Voice of Garrus Vakarian)**

**Ironhide- Steven Barr**

**Arcee- Tara Strong**

**Jetfire- Scott McNeil (Voice of Rattrap)**

**Bulkhead- Kevin Michael Richardson**

**Bumblebee- Greg Cipes (Yes, 'Bee will recover his voice soon. That much I can tell you)**

**Megatron Absolute- Frank Welker**

**Starscream- Gilberd Godfried**

**Thundercracker- John DiMaggio**

**Soundwave- Frank Welker (in his G1 incarnation)**

**Skywarp- Corey Burton**

**Barricade- Ron Perlman**

**Airachnid- Gina Torres**

**Knockout- Daran Norris**

**Jack Darby- Josh Keaton**

**Miko Nakadai- Tara Strong**

**Raf Esquivel- Andy Pessoa**

**Terry O'Neil- Chi McBride**

**Agent William Fowler- Ernie Hudson**

**Kelly Darby- Hynden Walch**

**Agent Simmons- Steven Blum**


	2. 02- Battlefield Cybertron- part 2

**-02-**

**Battlefield Cybertron**

**-part 2-**

Slam. Another hole in the wall. Bulkhead was so irritated. It's been nearly two weeks since Optimus/ Nemesis was taken by Megatron. Since then, the Decepticons have grown bold. They've been attacking power plants and facilities with advanced technologies. And the Autobots have failed more than once to stop them.

"/_Jazz! You're failure has not only caused us to lose another experimental arc reactor of Stark Industries' design, but also destruction of half the Caster Military Base and fifteen people injured, along with nineteen dead!_/" Fowler reported, fuming angry. Jazz just stood there looking at the monitor with an emotionless expression, as if not caring for what the special agent is saying. In reality he was taking the loses badly. The cyber-ninja was a fine leader in Optimus absence normally. And a surprisingly brilliant strategist. However, not only was Jazz more used to leading a much smaller team, but they were also dealing with Nemesis Prime. Despite his change of spark, the Prime did not lose his combat brilliance or tactical approach. That aiding Megatron's strategic genius just proved to be too much.

"Agent Fowler. We're doin' the best we can, man." Jazz finally answered. However, with Optimus on the enemy's side our morale drops the minute we see him. Me and Ironhide may bring up to fighting with him and hold our own. But not everyone can bring themselves to attacking someone like Optimus."

"/_I... understand you're having a hard time considering who your opponent is for the last two weeks. But still, you are endangering human lives. Before we know it, not only civilians will be put in danger, but the secret of your existence might come out. Now do your best and deal with the situation fast. Or we will execute 'Order 52'_/" Fowler said with a serious face, before ending the live-feed communication. As the screen turned black, Jazz sighed, walking back a few feet and dropping into the seat, rubbing his face.

"This is why I hate my rank." He complained.

"What's Order 52?" Jack asked. Then started rubbing his head, as Ironhide started to explain.

"'Order 52' is the maneuver of your government to terminate all none-biological extraterrestrials. No matter what affiliation. The only thing I know about it is the order is to be executed should the Autobot-Decepticon fight turn out too dangerous to afford secrecy due to getting out of hand."

The kids, and Kelly looked at each other before turning to Agent Simmons, who wanted to explain things differently. They were shocked to hear this.

"That's a stupid thing to do!" Miko snapped. "Who would come up with that kind of order?"

"Actually, young lady, it was Colonel Hawke's suggestion, to come up with a safeguards should the Autobots turn against humans. But it was General Bryce who formulated the whole series of orders like this." Agent Simmons explained. "And even you must understand that we can't afford to take risks."

"But it's not their fault things are going this bad!" Miko cried.

"Look at it from our point of view, kid. The Autobots are not from this world. Just like the Decepticons. And they start fighting in the city and things get more violent than in New York five months ago, then we have to deal with the problem. Otherwise, once the people learn the U.S. government hides the alien robots, there will be trouble. There might be even uprising, anarchy."

"So after all the Bots have done for us, it's destroy all of them and let the country look like heroes, is that it?!" Terry shouted, glaring at Simmons. By the look in his eyes, the teen was tempted to rip off the agent's head. "Y'know, Simmons, it's funny that whenever there's some big war or something far away, the benevolent Uncle Sam jumps in to save the day. But in the times like this, when friends are needed, or some country is left to fend for itself, because the our soldiers are done, the Pentagon and the White House are washing their hands."

Miko, Raf and Kelly, upon hearing that stepped back, with the latter two gasping. Simmons, however, was now furious.

"Listen here, kid! You think that everyone are like the idiot who attacked Afganistan and Iraq and then left it in the state of civil war?" Simmons asked. "Well no! That was not intended! And despite what you think, some of us are actually trying to bring stability there! And we are doing it for the right reason! Not all try to make this country look like a nation ruled by some god. It's only the stupid pseudo-patriots that America starts looking bad!"

"That doesn't exactly look like it..." Terry continued to rant, but to Jack's ears his voice begun to vanish into the distance. He felt as if everything around him was an illusion. His senses going haywire. And there was a high pitch screech coming. He placed both his hands on his ears, trying to block it out, but couldn't. it was just growing worse.

Arcee took notice of her charge's behavior and was already concerned. "Jack? You okay, partner?" she asked, walking over to him. And to her shock, he fell on his knees, gritting his teeth as if in pain.

"JACK!" now the femme panicked.

Soon enough, the humans stopped arguing, and the Bots turned their attention from the monitors to the teen. But just like it started, it stopped. Jack took a few deep breaths.

"Jack?" Kelly put her hand on her brother's shoulder. "Are you hurt?"

Jack's eyes widened, as if he realized something. He looked at Ratchet, confusing him even more.

"Ratchet? Didn't you... hear anything?" he asked.

If the medic had a brow-plate, he would've raised it. "Hear what?"

Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out the triangle-shaped shard. "I found this just after the team moved to Stonehenge." He analyzed the thing, not noticing the shock on the Cybertronians' faces. "Strange things have been happening ever since..."

"Where, did you say, you get that?" Jazz asked in utter disbelieve. Jack did not know what was so shocking.

"I-it was right here, in the Ark, lying on the floor. Why?" he looked at the Autobots. And now realized the shock on their faces. Somehow it made him feel uncomfortable.

"R-Ratchet?" Raf asked. "Is s-something wrong?"

"Jack, how is it you are holding that?" Ratchet asked.

"With my hand." He asked in the most obvious of ways.

"Jack. You should not be able to even touch that." Jazz continued.

"Why? It's just a shard, isn't it?" Jack asked.

Terry managed to speak before anyone else could reply. "Clearly it is something of far greater value to them than we know, Jacky."

"You are correct, Terry." Ratchet spoke. "That is The Key of Vector Sigma." He explained. "One of the most sacred artifacts of Cybertron. So sacred that only a Prime or one chosen by a Prime can carry it. Anyone else shall be burnt upon touching it."

Jack's eyes widened. Then decided the medic must be exaggerating. "Well... I'm not on fire or anything."

"That's because somehow the Key itself found you worthy of possessing it." The medic explained. "Believe me, I am not a specialist on the mystical things. But the Key has somewhat sentience of its own."

"You mean i-it's like an AI?" Raf asked.

"N-no. Not exactly." Jazz answered.

"Then it is magical." Miko concluded.

"Rubbish, I say." Simmons laughed at the idea. "Magic is merely science we fail to understand."

"You're wrong, Agent Simmons." Bulkhead spoke with annoyance. "There's more mysticism to this than you can understand."

"Regardless, The fact the Key to Vector Sigma is in our possession is a good sign." Ratchet snapped. "If it was in the possession of the Decepticons, Cybertron would face true unicron."

"How can something so small be such great importance?" Kelly asked. And she was not the only one confused. All humans in the Ark looked at the Autobots with confusion.

"I can only tell the Key of Vector Sigma is far more powerful than it appears."

"At any rate, now that we've got it, we might take it to Cybertron." Ironhide said.

"W-why?" Raf asked. "Why should we take it to Cybertron?"

"Because the only way to safe Optimus can be taught by Vector Sigma." Ratchet explained.

Jetfire was the one confused now. And took this as the right moment to speak. "Hold on. I thought Optimus said wisdom is the only way to heal one of the Hate Plague."

"Are you trying to tell us the Key can download the wisdom from V.S. and upload it to Optimus?" Jack asked, following what Ratchet was trying to say. Unfortunately it sounded too easy.

"No. I mean yes... Oh, I don't really know." The medic complained. "It's complicated. And only Orion Pax, the caretaker of the Cybertronian relics in the Iacon Master Archives understood how this works. And he's gone now."

"That doesn't mean the mystery's gone, Ratchet." Jazz spoke. "There is one other person who is likely to know."

That got the white-and-orange Autobot's attention. "You mean...?"

"Who else, old body, old pal?"

"There's only one problem." Ironhide decided to point out something, at long last. "You say we need to get to Cybertron. But we have NO FREAKIN' WAY OF GETTING THERE, YOU RUSTED OLD BUCKETS!" he shouted, releasing streams of steam from his superstructure. "The Ark is still centuries before it's fully repaired. The ground-bridge can't be so easily modified, if it can in the first place- though we'd still need a genius of Wheeljack or Perceptor caliber- and the space-bridge is busted. How'd you plan to send anyone to edge of another galaxy?"

The Autobots looked at each other. They couldn't believe it, but the sergeant was correct. Their spirit dropped, until Bulkhead snapped his fingers. "I was a space-bridge specialist, after all. I might be able to do something."

"You?" Ratchet asked skeptically. "Now this I gotta see." He mocked. "Besides, if what you reported is accurate, you smashed the trans-warp drive. And even if you had what you'll need to fix it, it'd still take years of work."

"Oh man." The Autobot flyer complained. "You gotta be kidding me. You mean I'll need to donate my trans-warp drive to make things go faster."

Everyone petrified for a moment. Then turned to face the former Seeker, giving him the weirdest look they ever gave anyone. "Y-you have... a trans-warp drive?" Arcee finally managed to ask.

Jetfire smirk proudly. "Well sure, hot-stuff. I've got it build in to my superstructure. I only failed to use it when I crashed into this planet because I had already used up the energon to avoid a meteor."

"And the reason you're telling this now is...?" Ironhide asked, fuming and clearly having a hard time not killing the flyer right where he stands.

"Are you for real? Every Seeker has a drive build into them. It's common knowledge." Jetfire explained in disbelieve. Every Autobot in the base looked at each other. Then Bumblebee bleeped, though quietly, that indeed that was true. Ratchet face palmed remembering the fact. Indeed, the Seekers were equipped with a trans-warp drive back in the days before the Great War. However, when the Decepticons rose, it was removed from them for more military equipment.

Bulkhead was deep thought, as if considering things. "I can work with that." He stated.

"Alright." Jack spoke. "So I get it we need to get to Cybertron. So you guys get to Cybertron and pass the key to someone who can keep it safe." He deducted.

"Jack. It's... not that simple." Jazz disturbed him. "The fact you can hear the Omega Frequency from the key means you are the only one who can hold it. It won't let anyone of us even touch itself."

That was all the explanation Jack needed to hear to understand that now the Key acknowledged him, and only him, as its rightful possessor. So, If the key was to be delivered to Cybertron... he would have to deliver it himself.

Kelly, of course, was not fond of the idea. "Jackson Wolfcry Darby! You are _not_ going to another planet, little brother!"

"I can go." Miko volunteered enthusiastically. That only earned her a glare from the older Darby.

"You're not goin' anywhere neither, Miko."

"But Kelly..." Jack was about to argue.

"No buts, Jack. I am not letting you go somewhere where I can't help you." Her face softened, as she placed her hand on his shoulder. " I don't want to lose you the way we lost mom and dad." She said with a saddened tone. Their parents died 8 years back. Their father, a soldier, was sent to Iraq, where he was shot. Six months later their mom, June, in her sorrow, lost the will to live. Since then the siblings had only each other. Well, of course there was also their grandfather, Jack's namesake, but he couldn't always be around.

Jack sighed in apparent defeat and looked down. "I understand." He said. The Autobots, well, some of them seemed disappointed. And Miko and Raf shocked. Kelly smiled a bit at what her brother said.

"I understand your fears. But Optimus still needs us." The raven haired teen added, surprising his sister and everyone else present. "He would have helped any of us if we were to suddenly think we're Decepticon ally. But since the Key finds only me worthy of holding it, and there's any chance it will tell us how to help him, than I must go."

"Jack...!"

"I don't want to go, Kelly. I am freakin' scared to go. I don't even know why I think taking the Key to Cybertron will help Optimus. But this is something I feel I must do." He paused, looking at Kelly, who seemed ready to bash him for talking to his legal guardian like that. "You and Grandpa always taught me to help people in need. I can't just do as you tell me to do now, ignoring all the morality I was taught. Optimus is in need. And he's a family. So like it or not I _must_ go."

"Jack..." Kelly half whispered, but was rather at the lost for words. The Autobots, on other hand, had a facial expression Ratchet and Ironhide never thought would have by the human- admiration. Arcee, after getting over her stunning, smiled proudly at her charge.

Simmons finally decided to speak. "I'll contact Fowler and let him know we're in a great need of the space-bridge and what they haven't salvaged yet." He said pulling out his phone.

"Good idea." Ratchet agreed. "We're going to need every available part."

Then the scout started to bleep. "Bumblebee's right." Ironhide said. "What's stopping the 'Cons from hitting us?"

"The fact no one expected Bulkhead to be a space-bridge specialist." Arcee commended humorously.

"On the serious note, though... if they were interested in the space-bridge, 'Hide, they would've hit there by now." Jazz assumed. "I think they're working on a different project."

"At any rate, we'd better make preparations for the journey to another planet." Terry pointed out.

* * *

**Decepticon Island**

The Vehicons have been working practically 24/7 nonstop. Merely making a break for energon. Why? They have been working on the Nemesis. Megatron demanded that if the space-bridge was out, than they needed to repair the vessel. So far, almost a third of the space ship has been repaired. Sparks were mixing with the ash falling from the sky. And an occasional volcanic eruption was the only thing to hear beside the working tools around the Decepticon flagship. That and a terminated Vehicon that failed on some simple task.

Megatron Absolute was now walking down the corridor, heading towards the bridge, accompanied by Nemesis Prime. The two had been discussing the plans for a long time after the corrupted Optimus officially joined the Decepticons. Little to say, with Prime's knowledge of Earth and human-race, the Decepticon warlord quickly found ways to gain an advantage in the war here on Earth. And with the two on the same side, their battle strategies were flawless.

When the door slid open, and the two entered the bridge, it was far different from what it was for the past fifty years. It was once more the state of the art. All the consoles were online again, flashing the streams of data. A Decepticon symbol in the ring-like pattern rose, transforming into Megatron's throne, ever so impressive. The drones were still running from one place to another, under the watchful optics of Skywarp overlooking the repairs. This was so pleasing.

"At this rate we might be able to leave this planet in a year." Megatron commented.

"Indeed, brother." Nemesis spoke. "And then we shall return to Cybertron and gather an army to conquer this world. Just think how much energon we can refine here."

"And humans might prove to be useful slaves. Excellent." Megatron smiled, before turning his optics to Skywarp, who approached them.

"Lord Megatron." The blue Seeker spoke. "The bridge is fully operational. However, Soundwave reports that our energon supplies are depleting at the faster rate than we can refine. He suggests we focus on the problem. Otherwise we face the repairs being delayed by an unknown extension of time."

Megatron sneered angrily. He did not like the sound of that. Still, it was having repairs delayed by weeks or by decades. And Megatron was no fool.

"Tell Soundwave to take Genocide, Thundercracker, Barricade and 12 Vehicons for the new energon refiner." He commanded. Skywarp bowed and was about to leave, when Nemesis Prime spoke.

"Also, have them to report to Knockout. Tell him he is assigned to solve the problem of the energon core." He ordered. Months back, the Decepticon warship was still able to fly. By thanks to the Autobots, the ship's power source, the accelerated energon fusion reactor core, has been destroyed. The 'Cons tried to solve the problem this entire time, but it was a difficult task. Then again, they dropped the project two weeks later, when they discovered Stonehenge- or more accurately the space-bridge.

"As you command." Skywarp bowed again. And not wanting to waste time, he warped out of the two's sight.

Megatron turn to the twisted Prime. "Nemesis. I would appreciate it if you were to remember I am the Lord of the Decepticons."

Nemesis glanced at his brother, staying silent for a long moment. The tension seemed to build between the two. Megatron even noticed something in Nemesis's optics. But that quickly disappeared. "It won't happen again, Lord Megatron. This I vow." Nemesis pardoned.

"Excellent. You may leave now." Megatron said, approaching his throne. When he sat on it, it transformed again, fitting him even better. "I wish to be alone for the time being."

"As you command, Lord Megatron." Nemesis bowed and turned to the exit. When the dark blue-and-scarlet Cybertronian left, Megatron's smile faded, turning into a frown. He was now waiting for his move.

* * *

Nemesis made his way down the corridor. This one was rather empty. He entered the armory and scanned the weapons. He seemed to be looking for something specific. That's when the door slid shot. When he turned around, he found Starscream come out from the shadow.

"Well well. Isn't it a bit off to find you here, Nemesis Prime." He commented in a mocking tone. "And don't take me for a fool. You may have fooled the others. But not me. I know exactly what you really are."

"I think I fail to understand." Nemesis said.

"Oh puh-lease. I will recognize a conspirator when I see one. And I know you plan on overthrowing Megatron." The leader of Seekers clarified. "But don't worry. I have no intention of selling you out. In fact, I propose a partnership. Help me take him down and together we will rule all of Cybertron." At the end of his sentence, Starscream reached out his hand, wanting to seal the deal.

"Sounds nice." Nemesis praised. "But... I have a better suggestion." He said with a bit darker tone.

And faster than Starscream could react, the Prime caught him by the neck joint and slammed him against the wall, putting more and more pressure, causing sparks to fly in the air. You assist me in eliminating Megatron... or consider yourself offlined. You got it?" Nemesis Prime said with a very dark and dangerous tone, which caused the red-and-silver flyer to shiver in fear. Starscream had enough bad luck to look him in the optics. While Megatron would be merciful if only because of Starscream's usefulness, Nemesis obviously had no reason not to terminate him. Having little to no choice, and being a coward, Starscream nodded.

Little did the two know about a spider-like Decepticon femme watching them. She found their conversation very interesting. Now she could take advantage of the situation. But with Megatron and Nemesis being so powerful, and Starscream being so unpredictable, it would be wiser to side with one of the sides. And who would be better than Megatron. By becoming his new second-in-command she would get much closer to him, giving her a better opportunity to terminate him. So, having her course of action set, she stealthily left the proximity.

* * *

**Stonehenge**

It took two days. Two long days to set things done. But Bulk indeed impressed Ratchet with his technical knowledge on space-bridge technology. There were even moments Ratchet was about to shot off his head, fearing he had actually gone insane. Fortunately, the military haven't removed anything from the site. They did salvage the whole junk, but haven't removed it to base, wanting the Autobots to take a closer look at it and evaluate it. Bulkhead knew exactly what he needed. About half of it. But he still needed Ratchet's help to get the machine build.

"Alright, Ratchet. Now plug the cosmic positioning tracker with the E.F. module and set the energon flow frequency on 124.045. But do it slowly. Otherwise it will overload." The ex-Wrecker instructed. All Ratchet could do by now was cooperate. His neck joint was too heat up to let him nod.

"Done." Ratchet said.

"Good. Now..." the green Autobot turned to Jetfire, who approached the two geniuses -he and some of the others never thought of ever calling Bulkhead a genius- at work. "we need to plug and set your trans-warp drive."

Jetfire was reluctant, complaining he was going to die vivisected. Well, his drive wouldn't let him bridge all the way to Cybertron. It had too limited range. And it wouldn't be enough to let the Bots make the space-bridge operational for their purpose. So they could only bridge Jetfire with two others. Jack, being the one in possession of the Key was the obvious choice. Arcee volunteered to be the second one to bridge along.

Jetfire just sat there as Bulkhead and Ratchet were running their fingers though his inside workings, at times tickling him. Arcee and Jazz found it hilarious to see the 40 foot Cybertronian laugh like that. It was something they needed, as the femme in particular was worried about taking Jack to her home world. When Kelly asked if it was possible for humans to breathe on Cybertron, Ratchet quickly explained that oxygen was only 2% of their planet's atmosphere, while it was rich in phosphorus and nitrogen. It also had lot of chloride and hydrogen. So- no. Simmons did say that they had a friends in NASA, Coby Hansen, who had a new prototype space survival exoskeleton suit they could borrow. Still, she was highly skeptical. Arcee disliked endangering their human charges. And while Jack proved to her humans were more than capable of doing things she'd never believe them to do, she was still worried something would go wrong.

"Are you done yet?" Arcee asked in her irritation.

"Almost." Bulkhead reported. "I just need to make some calibrations..."

"Arcee." Jazz spoke, getting her attention. She was a bit confused, until he spoke. "It will be fine. Remember, the minute you let your doubts and worries get the better of you is when things go wrong." He spoke wisely.

Arcee was a bit surprised by the words. But she knew their meaning. She smiled. "Always with the sayings. You sure know when to come up with those." She joked.

"Actually, it was Yoketron, my master, who spoke these words to me on my very first lesson. Remember them, Arcee. They may help you see things when your mind is most troubled."

"Yes, Jazz." she bowed, with Jazz returning the bow.

"Alright. It's all set." Bulkhead announced. "Let's make this quick before the 'Cons pick up the trial."

"Alright." Jazz agreed, activating his comm.-link. "Jack. We're ready for you."

"/Got it. On my way./" the teen answered. The Autobots and Fowler gathered around the green vortex, awaiting the human teen. At first it was Simmons and Kelly got came through. Then the sound of metal steps sounded. The Bots were a bit confused at this. Until finally Jack came out.

He was wearing a platinum, quite high-tech suit, somewhat resembling an astronaut suit, only not that bulky. It had a transparent shield in front of the wearer's face and a jet booster on the back. There also appeared to be wheels on the forearms and legs. Ratchet mentally commented that the boy looked like a miniature Autobot.

"Well, Project: Minicon is given a second chance." Fowler commented. "Just make sure if Elvis didn't escape to their planet, kid." He saluted.

"Came back safely, little brother." Kelly hugged him. Then turned to Arcee and Jetfire. "Keep him safe."

"No worries." Arcee reassured. "If I'll have to, I'll carry him all the time."

"Seriously?" the flyer complained. "Oh jeez. Wish I was this small and suddenly in the position to be carried."

Arcee slapped him on the head real hard for that complain. "Keep talking and you'll be needing a medic before we even jump to Cybertron."

"Well, soldier." Simmons started. "This is it. The moment of truth. You, one man, alone, without your home planet knowing about it, are about to make the biggest step for all mankind."

"Um...thanks, I think." Jack answered. Then he walked towards Arcee and followed her and Jetfire into the center of Stonehenge. The three stood there, while Ratchet began to type in the commands on the improvised console.

Within minutes, the stone structure began to glow a faint, bluish light. Electrical discharge ran along the cable towards Jetfire, who was also working on his mini-console, setting his trans-warp drive, just as a small dome of energy started to surround the trio. A strong wind was building up, pushing the humans away. Arcee, to be safe, grabbed Jack and wrapped her other servo around Jetfire's arm. Lightening begun to shoot up towards the sky, roaring. In before anyone could say anything...

They disappeared.

There was nothing but scorched soil where they stood. Ratchet approached the spot and analyzed it, before looking up. Then he sighted. "Now they're on their own."

"I just hope they'll be able to jump back here." Jazz commented.

"Jump back?" Bulkhead asked. Everyone gave him 'the look'.

"Yes. Return to Earth." Ratchet explained, fearing the worst.

Bulkhead was silent for a while. "Oh. Unfortunately, they'll have to get help from there, unless Jetfire can afford to use 20 times more energon than he can take." He explained.

And that's when Kelly, Simmons and Fowler paled- literally. And Darby fainted.

* * *

**Somewhere in space**

Wind and dust blew across the rough, rusty surface. The was no life around on the plain area, no civilization. Only the wind. This place was lifeless. Some would even think it was some sort of desert. Maybe even hell. The latter was more likely when the sun shined, causing the sand to suddenly turn from rusty red to orange, with a low hiss. Some the stones which were present in the area even started to set aflame. This was a weird sight.

The silence of the place was broke when a thunder echoed in the air, growing louder and louder until an orb of light blinked, ejecting three forms. They flew away from each other, across the air, until hitting the ground. All of them ached. This was hardly a happy landing.

Arcee complained about her back aching the most. "I'm gonna need an oil bath after this." She complained. Then took a look around. She started to worry quickly. "Jack?"

"I'm alright." The teen shouted from the small hill not too far from her.

"Hmm... that wasn't so bad." Jetfire commented, as he was getting up, doing something about his aching shoulder. "At least in the right planetery system, I hope."

The team gathered in one place, seeing if everyone was alright. After about ten minutes, Jack took a look around. All he could see was... nothing. "So this is Cybertron?" he asked. "Not exactly what I was expecting."

"This isn't Cybertron, Jack." Arcee informed the teen, getting his attention. "We're on Velocitron, the largest of the two moons orbiting our planet. That's Cybertron." The femme pointed towards the horizon. When Jack turned, he saw it, just above the horizon.

A large, silver planet. In multiple places maybe gold. From what Jack could make out, there was no water on the surface. And the planet looked as if a large portion of its surface was covered by metallic construction. A multiple number of areas seemed to glow, no doubt some major cities. It reminded him somewhat of that planet from the Star Wars series, Curuscant, but on a far different scale. If knew it was impossible, yet Cybertron appeared as if the whole planet was a giant space station.

"So, we're off course?" he asked.

"Something could've gone wrong." Jetfire decided to speak. "I mean... the trans-warp drive was not meant for bridging on distance of this scale. So I bet Bulk blew it. Oh joy."

"Can't we just fly there?" Arcee asked. "Or at the very least you could bridge us there."

"I've wasted my energon supply as well, Two-wheels. Plus the trans-warp drive needs to cool down, which will take days. And I don't have the energon to make it the planet surface. We're all gonna die."

"Shut up, Jetfire." Both Arcee and Jack demanded, surprising the ex-Seeker.

* * *

**Cybertron, Kaon**

Kaon. The capitol of the Decepticon empire. It was here where Megatron Absolute made his first key victory in this civil war. Now it did not have its master. Another Decepticon was overlooking the campaigns on this planet. A tall Decepticon with a characteristic hexagon chest was typing in commands with his one arm, as his left arm was a long rifle / cannon barrel. The dark purple 'Con was getting a report on dealing with the resistance in the Manganese Mountains. He had to admit he hardly expected the Autobots to make a strike from there. But logically, it did provide them defenses good enough to hold the Decepticons back for solar cycles. He would need to come up with a good strategy to deal with this.

The door to the room slid open and a violet-and-grey Decepticon entered. He was lean with bulky legs and upper arms, with tracks forming his biceps. His right shoulder mounted a cannon. And his helm appeared to be that of Darth Vader, but with flat top. The 'Con entered, with his four toed feet clearly getting the demanded attention. The one armed Decepticon turned to face the newcomer, revealing what appeared to be just one yellow optic in place of a face.

"What is it you have to report, Blitzwing?" the cyclopic Decepticon asked.

"Shockwave. Our scanners have detected a strange energy flux on Velocitron." Blitzwing reported, as his red visor flashed for a second, indicating his lust for battle.

"What energy flux?"

"Unknown. But we were able to determine it did not originate from this planet system."

"I see." Shockwave paused, thinking. "I believe it is time for our troops on Velocitron to scan the perimeter."

"It will be done, Shockwave." Blitzwing agreed, turning away. His wings rose, showing his joy. At last some action.

* * *

**Velocitron**

40 minutes. The trio was walking for forty minutes now and still found no trace of energon. To make things worse, they couldn't contact anyone. No matter which Autobot frequency Arcee tried, there was only static. She thought that if she tried any other frequency, she'd blow a fuse.

"Great. So I take it we're stranded here." Jack assumed. "Nothing like a little 'get lost in space' situation."

"Oh, gimme a break, will ya, organic?" Jetfire snapped. "It's not my fault me hardware is 'outdated'."

"This isn't the time to be bickering, you guys." The femme instructed, lying on the ground. "We might wanna take a break before we decided to attempt flying to Cybertron."

"Wha...? Are you for real? I told ya I won't make it to..." Jetfire tried to remind her, but the two-wheeler interrupted him.

"We have no other choice. We either try and reach Iacon, even if you have to fly off Velocitron and turn your engines off so we can float through space, or we can die here."

"Well, since you put it that way... I might wanna give it a shot." The flyer agreed.

"Umm... guys?" Jack got the attention of the two. The Autobots looked down at the human, who had a confused and uneasy look. "W-what's that sound?"

They sure were confused what was the teen talking about. But now that they tried to hear it, there was a strange, buzzing noise heading their way. They looked towards the rocky hills, where the sound was coming from. Deciding not to wait and find out, the trio made their way towards the rocky formation not far from them. Half way there, the group unluckily saw the source of the buzzing noise.

The Insecticons. A large group of savage-like, always hungry Cybertronians. Megatron's most terrifying troops. Most of them resemble a locust-mantis crossover. But there were some individuals. One of them resembled a large hercules beetle. It transformed into a black-red-and-purple Cybertronian with a mask for a face.

"Hardshell..." Arcee whispered.

"Y'know that chopper-face?" Jetfire asked.

"The field leader of the Insecticons. He's known for his brutal tactics and combat style. We are in deep trouble."

Hardshell scanned the area, focusing on the trio. He growled, waving his servo.

"Insecticons! Attack!" he ordered, transforming into his insect form. And the swarm dived. Arcee transformed, letting Jack hop on, which was a little difficult for the teen in the exosuit. Jetfire also transformed and the trio made a run for it, heading for the rocky formation, hoping to lose the pursuers. But the swarm was not so stupid. As the Insecticons were connected by the hive mind, they also shared the vision field with each other. So it only took one Insecticon to notice the three for the whole swarm to follow. The Insecticons opened fire, nearly hitting the trio. Arcee would dare more extreme maneuvers in narrow space if it wasn't she wasn't sure about Jack's grip. She feared he would let go and fall. That happened when one of the Insecticons hit near her, causing Arcee to lose her balance and throw the human off of her and out of the rocky labyrinth. The teen bounced off the ground a few times before finally coming to a stop. He tried to get up, forgetting about the Decepticon insects. Jetfire landed next to the femme and started to shoot at them, as Arcee finally managed to get over her aching head and located Jack.

"JACK!" Arcee panicked, seeing as one of the Insecticons was heading right for him. The teen was still too dazed to process his guardian calling to him or the situation around him. He wouldn't make it. The Insecticon had already transformed, ready to squash the organic.

Or he would. A blur of blue-and-silver crossed its path, making Jack disappear. And once the Insecticon landed, a blaster shot to the head terminated it. As it fell with a huge hole in the head, Arcee and Jetfire were awestruck. What was that?

The answer came when the blur headed towards them and stopped, setting Jack right next to them. The two Autobots looked up to find very slime blue-and-silver Cybertronian with very long legs and a backwards stretched horn on its helmet. But what also got their attention was an Autobot symbol on this Cybertronian's chest.

"Youokaylittleone? Yesnomaybe? Okaythen. Youstayherewith them. Byebye." The Autobot said before disappearing in a blur again. He was talking so fast the trio could barely make out of it. Now they only watched as the blur was running across the field, shooting at the Insecticons.

**(Background music: Transformers (2007) OST- **_**Arrival to Earth**_**)**

Then they saw few other Insecticons being shot down. They turned to find a single Autobot, white-and-black in color theme, running towards them, firing from his laser rifle. His wings unfolded, helping him come to a stop, as he took a more precise shot. Next to join in on this fight was a brown-and-gold Cybertronian fighter, which in Jack's opinion resembled a Batplane. The fighter launched a few missiles at the Insecticons, quickly incinerating them.

Arcee and Jetfire were so much at awe they failed to notice when Hardshell and a few other Insecticons managed to get up close to them. They were ready about to strike them down, when the 'Cons got attacked. Hardshell himself got hit by black lightening, whilst two of his followers were sliced in two by a blazing blur. In a manner of seconds, Arcee's confusion passed as their rescuers got before them. She recognized these two.

One of them was Kyujutsu. A black, tall black-red-and-white cyber-ninja with a very aggressive armor built. He straightened up on his two bulky legs, as his two claws unsheathed from each hand. His upper arms opened, causing black electrical discharge to engulf his servos. His lean, yet powerful body, covered in more scars than she remembered, was ready to attack as he snarled.

The other of their rescuers was also a fellow cyber-ninja, Inferno. He was a bit shorter than Jazz, but had far longer legs and rather small, though wide torso and hulky arms, from which his whips, covered in numerous blades he could heat up to extreme temperatures came out. His red colored armor was also fitting to his name.

The two dashed at the Insecticons, slicing through them with ease. Hardshell roared in fury, attacking them, only to be blocked by Kyujutsu and engage him.

"What's the matter, bug-face?" the aggressive cyber-ninja taunted. "Losing your temper already?"

"You pathetic Autobot..." The Insecticon field leader growled, pressing on the Autobot, only to have Kyujutsu slice off one of his four arms. Hardshell roared again, ready to attack again, only to receive a shot to the side. He turned to find another Autobot join the battle. His colors were a bit pale and no doubt there was rust every here and there, showing his was an old Cybertronian. But clearly his color was teal and bright blue. Also, his helmet resembled that of the PASGT. The Insecticon hated to do this, but... "Insecticons! Fall back!" he commanded. And the swarm gathered in the air, making their way away from the Autobots. Of course, their numbers still shrank before they got a fair distance away.

"Jack? Are you alright?" Arcee finally remembered the human teen nearly getting killed. Looked at the teen, inspecting him and his suit. Jack decided to speak, having enough of being treated like a doll or something.

"Arcee. I'm okay." He answered, letting her know he was feeling uncomfortable. She finally realized this and quickly put him down.

"S-sorry." She apologized. Then she and Jetfire noticed the Autobots surrounding them, aiming at them.

"-I am sergeant Coup.-" The oldest of the Autobots introduced himself. "-Identify yourselves immediately.-" He demanded. Jack couldn't understand a word he said. He was likely speaking Cybertronian.

"-At ease, Sergeant.-" Kyujutsu spoke aggressively. "-I know the femme. It's Arcee, a cyber-ninja-in-training.-"

"-Excuse me?-" Arcee spoke offended. "-I am a full fletched cyber-ninja for the past five stellar cycles.-"

"-So, Jazz actually found you worthy the title, eh, 'Cee?-" Inferno asked amused. "-Well, welcome to the club then.-"

"-What is this little thing?-" The black-and-white Autobot asked, kneeling to Jack's level as much as he possibly could. "-Doesn't look Cybertronia. Too small.-"

"-It's a human from planet Earth, you.-" Jetfire explained. "-And his name is Jack.-"

"-And you would be...?-" Coup asked.

"-The name's Jetfire, the Seeker of Legends.-" he answered proudly. The other Autobots were ready to shoot him, when Coup spoke.

"-Weapons down. I am familiar with the name. you were reported missing before the Great War.-"

"-Yeah... I had lots of catching up to do.-" Jetfire chuckled. Then the brown-and-gold fighter flew up to them and transformed. To Jack and Arcee's surprise it was a femme, about Jazz's height.

"-Airazor?-" Arcee murmured loudly, causing the femme flyer to smirk.

"-Well, it's been a long time, sister.-" Airazor commented, approaching the two-wheeler and giving her a hug. After they broke apart, she added: "-You look more original with less pink.-"

* * *

A few minutes passed since the team finally moved. Along the way, Arcee told the Autobots everything about Earth. She wanted to tell them what happened to have her come to Cybertron, but Coup suggested her to wait and report to their leader. And now they finally reached it, the base on Velocitron- Fortress Maximus. Back in the days of the Vok Wars, after the Vok were successfully driven off Cybertron, Zeta Prime ordered the outposts be set on both the moons. One for early alert as well as a military base to intercept the enemy. The second as a research facility. The first one was Fortress. Jack was at awe. It looked like an highly advanced New York. Some of the skyscrapers were actually turrets. It was breathtaking. Finally the team entered the base, carefully watched by the sentries.

And the vehicles finally stopped by the inner gate. And so they transformed, identifying themselves. Arcee did the introductions along the way, remembering on the way the kids never learned Cybertronian. The teal one was the team leader, Coup. The black-and-white with the red horns on his helmet was the security chief and sniper, Prowl. And according to Kyujutsu, he was once a cyber-ninja, but never officially completed his training. Then there were Kyujutsu and Inferno. The blue one, who was a Cybertronian version of the comic book superhero Flash was called Blurr. Then there was Airazor, Arcee's older 'twin'.

The group walked their way through Fortress Maximus, with Jack looking around at awe, seeing all these Autobots in various shapes and sizes. Their variety was even richer and more drastic than that of humans. As they entered what appeared to be a plaza, with a huge Autobot symbol painted on the ground, a pink-and-silver van-train like vehicle appeared, driving towards them. The group just stood there, with Arcee smiling.

"Arcee?" Jack asked. The femme already knew what was he about to ask.

"Jack. Meet the leader of the female Autobots and the leader of the Autobot resistance on Cybertron and Velocitron." She introduced, as the Cybertronian van stopped just inches before them, before transforming. The teen has already seen many Cybertronians transforming back and forth. But this one was unique. This one's structure kept rotating and spinning. It was likely the most drastic transformation he's ever seen so far.

The vehicle transformed into a femme, with high heels and long, slim, yet strong legs. Her hips were quiet wide and torso long. Shoulder pads were circular and what Jack identified as the vehicle's front formed her breast-plate. Finally, the lone antenna from the van's back placed on the head and opened, revealing a face with brilliant blue optics. She was slightly shorter than Megatron and Optimus, much to Jack's shock.

"Jack. Meet Elita One." Arcee introduced, before saluting Cybertron way.

Elita smiled warmly. "-It is great to finally see you again, Arcee.-" she greeted. And was about to learn what happened to her, as well as explain what happened on Cybertron.

**To be continued...**

* * *

**A.N.: Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere it is. Finally an update. And finally one of the Autobots, let's face it, you were probably eager to see- Elita One. It was a bit hard for me to start the chapter, I admit. But I managed to write and finish it after about twenty fixes to the content. Seriously. So, did you like it Review and let me know, or PM me with suggestions. BTW, I wanted to stay with the name Kup, but after ready there were issues with the name, I took the approach of doing something about his name. So in this story he'll be named Coup. But remember, I do not own Transformers, they belong to Hasbro. Well, until next time.**

**My cast:**

**Elita One- **Jeniffer Hale or Susan Eisenberg

**Coup- **Dee Bradley Baker

**Prowl- **Kevin Conroy (iconic voice of Batman)

**Kyujutsu- **David Hayter (voice of Solid Snake)

**Inferno- **James Arnold Taylor

**Airazor- **Pauline Newstone

**Blurr- **Tom Kenny

**Shockwave- **Corey Burton (G1 Shockwave's voice)

**Blitzwing- **Matthew Woods (voice of General Grievous)

**Hardshell- **Kevin Michael Richardson


	3. 03- Battlefield Cybertron- part 3

**-03-**

**Battlefield Cybertron**

**-part 3-**

Megatron sat on his throne in the dark, red lit room, sitting in silence. He was in deep thought. The repairs of the Nemesis were going smoothly. The energon refining has increased and improved. There was even more. Knockout and Soundwave have finally managed to fix and activate the Vehicon assembly. Now, even if the Autobots were to but u a fight as in the past, he had no worry about running out of drones. Still, there was a threat from the inside. It was not Starscream, however. The fool was too incompetent to actually succeed killing him. No, it was Nemesis Prime he was more of a threat. He recalled how Airachnid came to him two days earlier and reported on the corrupted Prime talking Starscream into partnership to overthrow him.

To her surprise, Megatron knew Nemesis was likely plotting against him.

Then why hasn't he done a thing? That was a question he would not answer her.

He was brought out of his musings when the door slid open. And Thundercracker and Knockout entered. The two kneeled before their lord.

"Lord Megatron." Knockout started.

"Knockout." Megatron questioned. "How did the scan of the Prime go?"

"Well, I scanned him thoroughly, as you commanded." Knockout gave his report. "The Hate Plague appears to have affected his spark itself. I do not think we have to worry about him returning to being Optimus with time."

"And the Key to Vector Sigma? Did you confirm it to be in his possession? Because when I tried to convince him into handing it over he denied being in his possession."

"Well... I found nothing." Knockout reported, backing away. "I used the cortical psyche patch to learn of its location, yet I found nothing on the subject. It is possible, however, that by some chance, he foresaw the possibility of getting infected or captured and 'dropped' it."

That thought made Megatron look at Knockout with an unexpected face. Then he raised his fusion cannon and fired at the medic, who barely dodged it.

"DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL, KNOCKOUT?!" the Decepticon Lord roared in fury.

"I-I-I-I w-will... con-tinue t-t-the search... my Lord...!" Knockout whimpered the words out, making his clumsy way to the exit. That's when Thundercracker started to make his report.

"M' laird. Th' scanners hae picked up an energy spike in englain sector. (My Lord. The scanners have picked up an energy spike in England sector.)" The blue Seeker reported, getting Megatron's attention.

"Were you able to confirm whether or not it was the space-bridge?" he demanded.

"If 'twas th' space-bridge, then th' bots did thair best tae ensure we dinnae discover it. However, thay sent something intae space. Nae brought it. (If it was the space-bridge, then the Bots did their best to ensure we don't discover it. however, they sent something into space. Not brought it.)"

Megatron's optics flashed for a nano-second, before he growled, dismissing the flyer. After he was left alone, he was again left in deep thought.

* * *

**Velocitron**

It took about two hours for Arcee to explain the situation to Elita One. She reported all about Earth, how the Ark crashed, being in stasis for years, meeting Jack, Miko, Raf and Terry, M.E.C.H., everything. Little to say, it was quiet interesting. The fleshlings intrigued her for millennia now. She knew they were more capable then what she read in the archives. But to see the humanoids of such small stature to be this resourceful... Elita was glad that Optimus and his team made friends with them.

She feared they died, considering they were gone for 8,000 years. She feared the line of Primes has ended. That in itself would mean the unicron has come. But she stayed strong. She believed that Optimus may simply have lost the means to communicate with Cybertron. So, until she heard from him, she did her best to lead the Autobots through the war.

"Unfortunately, the Decepticons have breached the Iacon walls." She was explaining. "We were not prepared for anything like that. It pained me to do this but I saw no other choice but to order a full evacuation. We managed to escape here, to Fortress Maximus. And now we're doing our best to endure." Elita finished explaining. She still could not believe that Arcee was standing right there before her, online.

The cyber-ninja could tell. The two may have not been sisters, but they were very close. So close they considered each other family. "Glad to know you're the one still givin' orders around here when Optimus's not around." She said. Then turned her attention to a small chamber door. By the window to the said chamber was a tall red-and-silver Autobot with a black, round helmet and a cannon-like device mounted on his left shoulder. He was working by the panel of sorts, typing madly. Arcee could tell he was working on two things at once. And he made it look easy.

"Alright, young one." He said through the microphone. "I have set the air inside the chamber to that on your planet."

Jack nodded and slowly, carefully opened the suit, which looked as if it was transforming. Jack took his time, before he took a deep breath. He chuckled, relieved that he had some actual air to breathe with without being in the exosuit. Finally the growing feeling of claustrophobia was vanishing. Jack wiped off the trickles of sweat off his face and turned to the window, seeing the Autobot, whose name he learned was Perceptor, and Arcee and smiled.

"Thanks for some human-friendly air." He said humorously. "And I'm glad you guys needed just to upload the data Arcee shared to learn English. The last thing I need is to look like a moron."

While Arcee rolled her optics, Elita and Perceptor chuckled. "Not at all, dear boy." The scientist said, turning to the femmes. "Now, if that's all, Elita, I'd like to attend to the upgrade for the Aerobots. If it wasn't bad enough Silverbolt's afraid of heights, his energon processing sufficiency has dropped by 34.29%."

Elita hummed for a second before speaking with a tire voice. "I am sorry, Perceptor, but I fear the situation might require your expertise more than we believed."

"I understand, Elita." Perceptor answered. Jack, hearing the whole thing got the feeling, that this guy wouldn't lose his temper even if Miko was to come with. He seemed like an opposite of Ratchet. That was a nice change. "However, I fear that aside from wisdom released from the Matrix of Leadership there is nothing to neutralize the Hate Plague."

"Excuse me." Jack called, getting the trio's attention. "But wouldn't Vector Sigma have the answer?" he asked.

"Maybe." Elita said. "But only Optimus, being a prime, can access it."

Arcee and Jack exchange the looks, before the femme decided to speak. "Well, yeah, about that... the Key somehow was dropped by Optimus and Jack is now an honorary Prime." She said, as the human pulled out the shard from one of the pockets. The look in the two's optics was... just priceless. Jack felt like laughing at their reaction, but managed to hold the laughter.

"That seems... impossible." Perceptor said.

"On the other hand we do not understand the legacy of the Primes." The tall femme answered the scientific super-genius. "Fortunately, if the boy has the Key to Vector Sigma and it synchronized with his bio-energy signature, then we still have the chance to ensure Megatron doesn't learn how to use it."

Hearing that made Arcee's optic widen in shock and confusion. Her charge wondered why. "I always thought the Matrix of Leadership, due to its sentience, could not be used by the evil and unworthy." She pointed out with her voice on edge. Elita approached her with a serious look. One of someone about to lecture a youngling who spoke out of line.

"The Matrix itself is indeed useless to Megatron." Elita agreed. "But with the Omega Key it's another story."

"Excuse me." Jack called, very confused. "A teenage human from another planet here. What Omega Keys? What are you guys talking about?"

"It's a long story, Jackson. One that in order to understand requires you to know our history." Perceptor said, knowing full well that was what Elita was about to do.

"Before the beginning there was the Allspark. Then from it and into the Void came Primus. Primus stopped on nearest planet and there he created the first of our kind. However, after creating a vast number of them, he learned that they were flawed. They lacked something. They were, confused and fragile. Disorganized. So from both his essence and the energy of the Allspark itself, Primus created what we call the Plasma Energy Chamber. There, Primus spent decades, after which he emerged with the Eight True Cybertronians- the Prime Council."

"Nexus Prime, the Just and head of the Council. Prima, the Wisest of them. And a sparkmate to Nexus Prime. Megatronus Prime, the Master of Entropy. Vector Prime, Guardian of Timeline. Alpha Prime, the Chronicler. Solus Prime, the Craftsmistress and Head Architect. Onyx Prime, the Serious. And Nova Prime, the Gentle. The Prime Council were guiding the others from their confused state, leading them into the civilized times, soon turning Cybertron into what we know today. In time, The Eight ventured deep under the surface of Cybertron, and there, as Primus left to forge new life throughout the universe, they created Vector Sigma, wishing to preserve the collective knowledge of the Prime Dynasty. And upon its completion, they took a two pieces of it."

"However, as Primus left, some of the Primes grew fearful, as the Creator left them with the only thing just as powerful he himself- The Creation Core. In time, the Council broke apart, with Megatronus turning on the others and killing Nexus Prime First. Over the centuries later, Megatronus Prime, who has been dubbed The Fallen, has been defeated, leaving Prima and Alpha Prime as the last of the Eight to live. In time the two hid The Creation Core safely. And to ensure it would not be found by the others like The Fallen, the two created the map, which would not be readable without the Matrix and the Omega Lock, which would be found by gathering the four Omega Keys. But the artifacts have been separated from each other for safety. In time, Alpha Prime stepped down, and continued to work as Alpha Trion, the Head Archivist in the Iacon Master Archives as well as teaching the next Primes, starting with Prima's very successor, Primon Prime, until Optimus came to be."

The room was silent. Or at least the space the four occupied. Jack had to admit that this history lesson was something big to process. Not only did he learn more about their origins But also...

"So, the Matrix of Leadership and the Omega Lock form some kind of map which leads to wherever the Creation Core is hidden. But in order to find the Omega Lock, Megatron would need four Omega Keys." Jack connected the dots.

Perceptor smiled. For an alien from a primitive world, he understood it very fast."

"Jack is far more intelligent than you think, Perceptor." Arcee said.

"I noticed. He paid attention all the way and listened. You, on the other hand, fell into stasis half way."

Arcee's optics widened in shock. She could not believe he brought it up. "I was a sparkling then!" she defended herself. "And did you had to bring it up in front of Jack?"

"Um, Arcee. I'm right here, y'know." Jack sarcastically reminded of his presence. Arcee faced away in Miko style. Elita and Perceptor chuckled at that.

"At any rate, if you need to learn how to help Optimus, than there's only one place you can find the answers." Elita said, as Jack pulled out the Key. "And just so you know, it is one of the Omega Keys as well."

"W-WHAT?!" Both Arcee and Jack were shocked. Then Jack asked: "Who's got the other keys?"

"I can only tell you that Megatron has one in his possession." Perceptor said. "It's been placed into his sword, the Menace Blade, as he called it. Though it was not seen since The Obliteration of Tiger Pax. No one knows whether he left it in Kaon or keeps it by his side even on Earth."

Jack looked at the shard in his hand for a while. So the Matrix of Leadership was a part of a much bigger picture. But then this means this war might be about something so much more than simple genocide of the Autobots and seizing power. He wondered, though, if that was really all. He shook the thought. This was no time to think about that.

"We lost enough time for teaching me about your people." Jack said. "Optimus needs us. So tell us, where's Vector Sigma exactly?"

"It's under Iacon." A voice caught their attention. The four turned to find Kyujutsu walking up to them along with Inferno and a new Autobot Jack was yet to meet. The said new Bot was tall and slim, aside for his broad torso, with what appeared to be a rocket mounted on his right shoulder. Another thing about this Cybertronian were wings on his back and strange horns on the sides of his helmet. As he spoke, his face-plate did not move like Optimus's. Instead, these horns started to blink. "It's the very Cybertronian capital, as well as where the Prime Council sat during the Golden Age. But getting to the planet surface itself will be a challenge."

"Have you got an idea as to how to help them, Wheeljack?" Perceptor asked.

The Autobot chuckled. "Puh-lease. You may be the greatest scientist. But I am the greatest inventor. I have already set up the Axalon. It will make it to the surface. And if the pilot's good, it will make it off the planet."

"Excellent work, Wheeljack." The tall femme congratulated. "Now see to Jetfire and his trans-warp drive. The minute these two get what they need they're going to need a quick transport home."

"That will be a bit problematic, Elita, my dear." Perceptor said with a serious tone. "I am afraid that there's little we can do about the drive cooling down."

"I am afraid we have little choice on the matter, Perceptor."

"I... understand." The scientist Autobot nodded in understanding and made his way to the med bay, where Jetfire was being attended to. The former Seeker has used up a lot of energon while using his trans-warp drive to bridge himself, Arcee and Jack all the way here. That and it put some strain on his system and gears. So he needed a lot of work before he's be released for duty. But what annoyed Perceptor was Jetfire's constant complain about no femme medic attending to him.

Jack and Arcee faced each other and the cyber-ninja nodded before turning to the Female Autobot leader. "Elita." She caught her attention. "We must get to Iacon soon."

"Then pack your pet and move it." Kyujutsu growled. "We're wastin' time here."

Both Arcee and Jack did not take the comment about the teen well, but it was the said teen who spoke out loud. "I am not a pet, alright? I am a sentient being and I have a name- Jack." He said loudly with his voice on edge. Kyujutsu, however, did not seem to care.

"Whatever. Now ready yourselves. We're leavin' in ten cycles. So make haste, youngling." He turned and was about to make he's way to the craft. But Arcee's temper got the better of her. She hated when someone messed with her. And more than once she's proven it was a mistake to do so. "I am not a youngling!" she snapped. "I am 3,000,506 stellar cycles old!"

"Yet your still in second stage." The Autobot with razor claws in his servos shrugged, making his way out. Arcee was actually so mad right now she could release steam from the sides of her helm. As far as she could recall, Kyujutsu was always against her. Not because she was a femme. He was respectful towards them. He simply considered her weak due to her young age. Though that aspect was debatable. Each Cybertronian aged differently. Still, it annoyed her to be called youngling, though she was nearing turning 3 stage.

"Um, Arcee? Are you okay?" Jack asked, uneasiness in his voice. Seeing his nervous reaction, the white femme ventilated and calmed down.

"Sorry about that." She apologized. "It's just that Kyujutsu always views me for a kid."

"By Cybertronian standard?" Jack asked. Arcee seemed to be in a deep thought for a moment before she answered.

"If I were human, I'd be... 19, if I'm right."

That surprised Jack. She was that young? All he dared say was: "Whoa..."

* * *

**Earth, Decepticon Island**

"Starscream! Lord Megatron wants to see ya!" Barricade called. "Starscream! Barricade hates being ignored! STARSCREAM!"

Barricade entered the bridge of the once mighty Decepticon warship, Nemesis. He looked around, searching for someone specifically. His optics narrowed when he couldn't find that someone. He growled in annoyance. He needed to find that one Decepticon and fast. He exited the bridge, making his way down the hall, growling along the way. When he passed by one of the storage rooms, the door slid open, allowing Starscream to walk out. The red-and-silver flyer was nervous as he carried a box of electronic parts. He ran in the opposite direction of the hall until he reached Nemesis quarters.

When he entered the room smoke momentarily blinded him. He looked around to find multiple machines, computers and Vehicon parts lying around, disassembled. Megatron's SIC turned his gaze on Nemesis Prime, who was working on something. He was so focused on his project he did not appear to acknowledge Starscream enter his quarters. That gave the Seeker the idea. He did not understand why Lord Megatron bothered not to kill the Last of the Primes now, but he would not do something as foolish. So he set the box down on the floor and as quietly as possible started to walk towards the Prime. His fingers unsheathed his claws, turning them into talons. When the Decepticon flyer got near Nemesis and got ready to deliver the death blow, his smile grew.

Only to vanish when Nemesis turned around delivering a powerful blow to his face. Starscream hit the wall so hard he got stuck in it. He started to groan in pain, which made his face hurt even more. When he managed to open his optics, though, he quickly forgot about the pain and was in state of fear. Nemesis was approaching him. He flyer started to tremble, trying to find a way out. But couldn't.

Nemesis Prime stopped and pulled up the box with the parts. "You have done well, Starscream." The corrupted Prime said, making his way back to his work after pulling Starscream out of the wall. The Seeker growled in frustration, thinking about actually attacking and killing Nemesis right where he stands. The thought vanished when he noticed his red optics giving the flyer a death-promising stare. "You may leave now." He said in a ominous tone. Starscream yelped as he finally made his out.

Once outside, Starscream snarled. He was honestly having enough of this. He's been playing loyal for long enough. Perhaps it was about time to actually overthrow Megatron and deal with the Prime. Yes, it is about time.

"Starscream!" Barricade's voice caught him off guard, making the flyer yelp again. He turned to find the 'Con hunter approaching him. "About time Barricade found you. Lord Megatron wants to see you now. And unlike you, Barricade has better things to do than going fetching you." He commented, turning his back on the Seeker-in-charge and made his way to the other part of the Nemesis.

Having nothing to do at the moment, and no specific plan to deal with either leaders, Starscream sighed and made his way to Megatron's quarters.

Megatron was now working on his own project, watching terabytes of information flowing down screen on the holographic screen before his optics. He was looking at the reports on the progress of the Nemesis repairs. So far the progress was satisfying. He was in a good mood, seeing as his warship would finally return into the sky.

However, there were reports of some parts disappearing. He ordered to ignore this, unless it would cause the delay of the ship's repairs. He had no doubts that either Nemesis Prime or Starscream stood behind this. But he would let them play their game, for now.

One of the screens changed from the data stream to that of the one-eyed science officer Shockwave and a tactical genius and battlemaster Blitzwing. To see the two clearly meant that something happened.

"-Shockwave. Blitzwing. What do you have to report?-" he demanded.

"/-_Lord Megatron.-_/" Shockwave started, bowing to their master. "/-_Forgive us if we interrupted, but we have detected an energy flux on Velocitron. The energy profile matches that of a space-bridge, according to the archives.-_/"

That caught Megatron's interest. He faced the screen with a stone-face. "Are you certain it was a space-bridge transportation?" he asked.

"/-_Yes, my lord.-_/" Blitzwing said. "/-_And we have sent our swarm of Insecticons to see into it. We have only confirmation, based on the trial from the likely landing spot, of a small group of Autobots appearing there. However, the resistance on the moon intercepted our swarm before their identity could be confirmed or any prisoners brought." Megatron frowned at that. "We are preparing a strike team to intercept them. Surely they would not arrive all the way here unless they planned to reach Cybertron itself.-_/"

Megatron stayed quiet after that. He needed to think about it. Thundercracker did report earlier that the Autobots could have used the space-bridge somehow. Did they actually do manage somehow? "-Update me on the situation as soon as anything happens.-" He ordered.

"/-_Yes, my Absolute.-_/" Both Shockwave and Blitzwing bowed, before the transmission ended. And Megatron was back to the reports. But, he was also planning for the possible scenarios on Cybertron.

* * *

**Velocitron**

Autobots ran every here and there, in a seemingly disorganized way. In reality, they were all in a hurry. They were going to start this operation any minute now. They were going to send a small team back to Cybertron, to Iacon. Everything was about ready. Wheeljack and a small team under his command were making some final adjustments to the spacecraft which was going to serve for a drop-ship now, the Axalon. It was a big ship, but small and fast enough to serve its purpose. It was a spear-shaped craft with four sword-shaped wings, two of which served to hold it on ground.

Arcee and Jack were already close to the Axalon, with Jack still at awe to all this. And at times he had to look out not to get stepped on. He and his guardian stopped just before the ramp. They would board the ship by now, but Wheeljack was still working on it.

"There you go, guys." He said, closing the panel and clapping his servos in a cleaning manner. "This should reach the planet fast and safely."

"Should?" Jack asked, worried expression on his face.

"You get to test it for me. If it works, I'll be able to prepare a fleet to drop our troops to take back Iacon."

"Great. Nothing motivates us like knowing we're expendable." Jack commented sarcastically, making Arcee roll her optics.

"No worries there, kids." A voice caught their attention. The two turned to find Kyujutsu and Inferno approach them. The aggressive cyber-ninja continued. "We're comin' with you."

"You sure?" the human teen asked.

"No worries, mate." Inferno spoke. "We're going to ensure your chances of success are better than they are now." He assured, still somewhat surprising Jack with his strong Australian accent.

"Plus, someone has to keep an eye on you." Kyujutsu growled, passing by them towards the ramp. Arcee was now visibly annoyed by his attitude.

"Not so fast there, lads." An elderly voice stopped the black cyber-ninja. What now? When everyone turned to the source of the voice, they found Coup along with Prowl, Airazor and Blurr walking towards them. Arcee and Jack traded their glance, both confused and ridiculed with this. This was supposed to be a simple get in and out operation. And now it was becoming something bigger. "We're coming with you. You're going to need us." The old Autobot said.

"That's unnecessary, old timer." Kyujutsu said. "You're going to give out our presence easily."

"This is not something to talk about, you cyber-ninja." Coup snarled. "and according to protocol, a full squad is required for deployment. Plus you will need extra firepower should the enemy learn of your location."

Now Kyujutsu growled, making Arcee, Jack, Wheeljack and Inferno step back as he made his way to Coup. "This is a type of mission that requires stealth, you old rusted bucket of bolts. Something we, cyber-ninja, and the youngling, were trained for, unlike your squad of hero-wanna-bes, who know only how to take down 'Cons with a loud bang. So you stay put."

The teal sergeant scowled. "You are not going alone. You need someone to actually coordinate your moves."

"We got experience in infiltrating, espionage and we know how not to get spotted. So we're more qualified than you bunch of losers."

"Is that a challenge?" Coup unsheathed a hatchet-like axe from his forearm, while glaring at the taller cyber-ninja, who in turn, while glaring back, smiled.

"Think you can keep up, old timer?" Kyujutsu unsheathed his claws in his left servo, whilst opened his right upper arm, getting his whole servo engulfed in black electricity. The two were no glaring at each other, one daring the other to make a move. The atmosphere grew more and more intense, making the others back away a bit, expecting a fight.

"Okay, stop!" a young voice called. Everybot looked down to see Jack raising his hands, calling to the two to both stop and pay him attention. "In case you guys have forgotten, Optimus is in need of our help. Vector Sigma is supposed to hold all the collected knowledge and wisdom of the Primes since the Prime Council. So if there's any chance that the big V has answers how to restore him, then that's where I'm going. Alone if I have to, since you guys, for some reason, think your quarrel is more important than this." The teen spoke with his voice on edge. He thought he may be out of line, considering he was an alien here. Still, right now he was more concerned about Optimus.

The Autobots eyed the human, mostly surprised and shocked. For something so small, he had the gears to step up to Coup and Kyujutsu. Arcee was at awe seeing her partner and charge act like that. She haven't noticed, but if she was human, she would've blushed.

The tow arguing Bots turned back to facing each other, sheathing their weapons back and sighing. "I guess the human is correct." The black cyber-ninja commented.

"He was out of line. Standing up to the superior officer normally is not something to stand for." The old Autobot spoke harshly. But quickly sighed. "Still, I cannot ignore the young lad has the point. A Prime is in need and we are bickering like two sparklings over a toy."

"Yeah." Kyujutsu looked down. Then he turned to the ship and walked up the ramp. "Move it already. We've wasted enough time as it is." He ordered. Coup nodded and made his way, nodding for the rest of the team to board. Wheeljack gave it a second to think before speaking.

"I'll come along. I mean, if the ship get damaged, you'll need someone who can fix it real fast."

"I'll take you with us any cycle, mate." Inferno answered. And as he was about to make his way to the ship, he faced the human. "You're brave, li'l one. Make sure you stay that way in Iacon."

"Y-yes sir." Jack answered, watching as the red Autobot walked up the ramp, following him.

Arcee was following her charge, walking alongside her twin, who smirked. "You've got an interesting friend there, sister." Airazor said.

"Yeah. Jack's unique." The two-wheeler agreed. "His the first human I came to like. And the best friend of them all."

Airazor said nothing and just looked at Arcee with a curious look. Then smirked.

* * *

**Cybertron orbit**

The ship stayed high in orbit, nearing above Iacon. From there, the ship would drop. Wheeljack was overlooking if the ship worked properly, acting as if they were not going to fight a planet full of Decepticons. Arcee could not believe someone could be this carefree. Then turned to her sister, who got ready. She volunteered to play the bait. After all, she was the fastest flyer in the group. Arcee gave her a good luck nod, which her sister returned, before locking the airlock. Then the femme flyer jumped out and transformed, diving down towards the planet. She kept increasing her speed. Now she would put the security to the test.

As she neared the buildings, the Decepticon defense spotted her. Immediately, the Vehicons and turrets aimed and fired, missing her as Airazor swiftly dodged every shot. She returned fire herself, attracting more attention, pulling up and now flying between the buildings. The Vehicons, being the flyers themselves stationed here, transformed and followed after the brown-and-golden Autobot. Now Airazor was heading directly for the two turrets which were stubbornly trying to shoot her down. But, not only were they hitting the 'Cons on her tail, they were stupid enough to shoot themselves when she flew between them.

In the meantime, the Axalon fired its engines and dived towards the planet surface. Arcee wrapped her servos around Jack, to ensure he wouldn't get hurt the minute they land, expecting it'd be a rough one. And she wasn't all that wrong. The ship literally hit the ground. Fortunately, it was supposed to land like that, otherwise there would be at the very least a crater. The crew was a bit stunned, however. And groaned.

"Everyone okay?" Inferno asked.

"I'mokay. YesIamokay. Whataboutyouguys? Youguysokay?" Blurr asked.

"Urgh. I'm gonna offline someone. Who gave Coup the pilot's programming?" Kyujutsu asked as he struggled to get on his feet.

Arcee got off the floor and looked around After stating she was alright herself...: "You okay, partner?" she asked, seeing as Jack was tense.

"Um...Arcee? I don't think you mentioned how much bigger Cybertron is." Was all the teen said. The white femme quickly realized what he meant. The gravity was affecting him. Jack felt himself heavier. It wasn't as if he would die, and thanks to the motors in the suit, its weight wasn't the issue. But he would be moving slowly. He reached for the one of the buttons on his left forearm when Arcee put him down and in a manner of seconds he felt a bit better. "Gave a little boost to the motors. I'll have it easier to move around."

"Nice to hear, 'cause we have to move now." Prowl said, preparing his rifle as the ramp lowered. The Autobots were ready to move out, when Wheeljack spoke.

"You guy go ahead. I'll ensure the ship's safe and ready to depart." The inventive genius said, staying behind with the ship.

The team got out of the ship and found themselves in the barrack ruins. Not really the ideal hiding place, but it would do. Now they made their way out and found the ruins of a huge wall surrounding the wall which once surrounded the city. As they took a little more look around, they saw a gigantic dome in the distance. "We did it, lads." Coup said. "We're in Iacon."

"This... this is amazing." Jack said. "I'm actually on another planet. And in your capital at that. Arcee..." the teen's enthusiasm quickly vanished when he looked at his guardian. What he saw was pain and sorrow. Seeing the city like this must've hit her hard. Enough to break her mask.

"This... is not how I wanted you to see my home, Jack." She said with much pain. Jack felt bad about this.

"I'm sorry."

"We did our best to stop the war." Prowl spoke. "But Megatron's power and strategies have proven too strong to stop. The best we could do was slow him down. And once we isolated Iacon, many were wondering if there's even Cybertron left to save."

"Well, I don't suppose we could ask Megs to hand it over, now do we?" Inferno joked.

"Quit blabbering and let's do this." Kyujutsu growled. Then turned to Arcee and Jack. "Alright you two. It's about Optimus. You know where to go?" he asked, slowly directing all his attention on Jack.

The human reached for the pocket and pulled out the shard, carefully examining it. "Wish I knew. I don't exactly see a ma..." he paused, as he started hearing it whisper again. But this time there was something different. The Key started to glow. "Do you see that?"

"See what?" Arcee asked in confusion. Jack was about to say something, but decided not to. A thought hit him. If the Key could decide who's worthy of holding it...

"I think the Key's showing me which way to go." Was all he said.

The Autobots were a bit skeptical, but Inferno decided to speak first. "A'ight then, mate. So which way does the Key show then?"

Jack moved his hand to the left, finding its glow weaken. So he moved it to the right, seeing it grow stronger and strongest when it aimed at the dome. "This way!" he pointed.

Arcee transformed into her vehicle mode and rolled over to Jack. "Hop on." She said. But before her charge could do so, Kyujutsu said.

"No! There can still be Decepticons on the way. We move it on foot."

"You sure about that?" Prowl asked.

"He's right." Coup supported. "We've only seen the troops on the rooftops. The ground troops might be around. Iacon holds enough information data and relics which could decide the fate of this blasted war. No way there are no troops around. We'd better avoid any more attention than we could've attracted by now."

The group nodded in agreement. Then Blurr stepped out. "I'lltakealookahead." He said, taking off and disappearing in a blur of blue.

As the group slowly followed, they failed to notice an Insecticon crawling on the side of a building, watching them. It slowly crawled down the wall towards them, hissing.

* * *

**Kaon**

The image appeared on the holographic screen. What the Insecticon was seeing was now known to Blitzwing and Shockwave. The two were somewhat intrigued by the groups appearance.

"-The Autobots are within Iacon?-" Blitzwing said. "-In such a small number?-"

"-We must report it to Lord Megatron.-" Shockwave stated ready to contact their lord. He was willing to report the situation and take whatever action necessary.

"-No.-" Blitzwing said with a threatening tone. "-I want to see why are they here. Have the Insecticon follow them and, if possible, confirm their designations, so we can take the proper approach when dealing with them.-"

Shockwave just stood in place, thinking about it. He couldn't ignore Blitzwing's reasoning. If the Autobots were here for salvage, then it'd be better not to disturb Lord Megatron. And if they were here to meet with the resistance on Cybertron, then this was a good opportunity to learn where they've hidden.

"-Very well, Blitzwing. For now we will observe.-" The one-eyed Decepticon replied.

"-Good.-" the 'Con officer said before laughing.

* * *

**Iacon**

The Autobots continued their long boring walk. Jack was leading the team, but only because the Key was connected to his neuro-sensory, thus making him the only one who could see the shard actually pointing the path to take. Arcee was reluctant to allow the human youth to take point. What if there was a Decepticon just behind the corner? Jack would be the first to attack. And an easy prey. Still, the other concern was the team's response.

While Airazor was likely to protect Jack just as much as her, the two-wheeler was skeptical about the others. Inferno and Blurr were probably most willing to protect the boy, the latter apparently growing fond of the teenager. Prowl seemed neutral, meaning he would probably watch over him due to the mission directives. Coup seemed to have already find this mission to be a waste of time, but wasn't going to argue with Elita if she thought there was a chance not to ignore. Kyujutsu... Ah, great. He was the worst. He seemed not to care what would happen to Jack. He was likely to fight the Decepticreeps or just safe Prime, but no care for the little organic. And this attitude troubled her.

"Okay... the Key shows it's in there." Jack said, stopping and showing the huge dome-like building. It was a bit ruined, but still held that great feeling to it. Arcee's optics widened when she eyed the structure, with several pyramid-like structures decorating its edges like gargoyles of Notre Dame. And the copper path way between the statues of the Primes.

"The Stronghold of Primes." Arcee murmured. It was the first time she actually saw the building. It was here where the Prime Council seated, their home, their throne, their place of power. When she was younger, she always wanted to see the place, which was found off limits after Primon Prime's successor, Nominus, came to power, and with his advisor, Liege Maximo, began to change the Prime Dynasty for the worse. "Never thought I'll see it, even under these circumstances."

"I always thought Vector Sigma was hidden beneath the Iacon Master Archives." Prowl said.

"That seems like an official story, for safety measures, lad." Coup figured, scratching some rust off his servo, observing the surroundings. Then Blurr appeared next to the group.

"Ilookedaround. ThereareseveralDecepticonsguardingthisplace. Looksliketheirlookingforsomething." He reported.

"That's going to make things difficult." Coup commented, thinking. Then Prowl, in haste, aimed in the air and fired, as a part of the building was collapsing. The Autobots and Jack were the only ones to hear the Insecticon get hit by the shot, as well as by two missiles. As the 'Con fell to the ground, Airazor arrived and transformed, landing just behind them.

"Sorry I came so late." The femme flyer apologized. "But Dreadwing and Thunderwing joined in the hunt. It was hard to lose them."

"And this guy's been following us for some time now." Prowl commented, pointing his rifle at the offline Insecticon. Coup now understood the sniper was aware of its presence for a while now, but did not want to risk alerting the Decepticons in the area of their presence here. Then the white-and-black Autobot turned to the entrance to the stronghold and through his scope observed. "There's a lot of Vehicons down there. And probably twice as much inside."

"Sohowdowegetin?" Blurr asked, looking at everyone.

"We can't." the old Bot answered in a grim tone. "We don't have the fire power to do so."

"But we can." The aggressive cyber-ninja said with a sadistic smile. "Old Timer, you and the team play distraction, while me, Inferno, the youngling and organic sneak in."

"You want us to put our sparks on the line so you can enter the place undetected?" Airazor asked.

"A small group can be hardly spotted." Kyujutsu answered. "Even the sergeant knows that. That's exactly why I said we're going alone."

"What you're suggesting is against the protocol." Coup growled. "We are already in a small group. And thus we have to stay together to better our chances of survival."

Prowl looked at the sergeant in an unpleasant way. "They're right, Coup." Prowl stated. "If the four of them can get a descent distraction, they can break through. We need to cover them."

"First off, lad, it's 'sir'. Second, in this kind of situation the protocol..."

"Forget the protocol, Coup." Prowl growled. "This is the kind of situation that requires adaptation, not blindly following procedures." He reached for his container and opened it. After a few seconds, he pulled out a few small plastic-like cubes and addressed the speeding Cybertronian. "Blurr, I want you to place these over there." He pointed at the ruined building on the other side. "The 'Cons will think there's more of us as these shoot at them. Meanwhile the Cyber-ninja will escort the human to the stronghold and reach Vector Sigma."

Coup glared the security chief. He admitted to himself that Prowl was a good strategist, but had a dislike to his disregard for rules and regulations, even if it was only when he believed to get in the way. Coup did just that on the mission many cycles back and lead the team straight into scraplets. As a result, the majority of the Wreckers was offlined, leaving him traumatized.

However, Optimus needed help. So he swallowed his pride. "Fine then, lad. We'll do this. You take the highest possible point for sniping, but somewhere where the flyers won't see you. I'll take it from this point, while Blurr, using his hyper-speed, will run from one spot to another to further confuse the enemy about our numbers. I'll keep things from this point to supervise. Airazor will be in a ready to provide air support."

"Yes sir." Prowl, Airazor and Blurr nodded.

"Whatever." Kyujutsu answered. "Let's do this while the organic's still got something to breath with."

"Ready to go Jack?" Arcee asked, looking down at her charge and friend.

Jack didn't reply right away. He seemed to be in thought, with clearly uncomfortable expression. He was nervous. Arcee understood he was worried things might go bad, scared. But she wouldn't push him. He needed a little time. "Jack, we need you to be brave. Optimus needs you to." She added. And in a matter of four seconds, the teenager looked up at her and the other Bots.

"Let's do this fast." He said. Arcee smiled proudly and nodded, before turning to the others.

"You heard him."

"Ofcoursewedid. I'llplacethesewheretheyneedtobe. Bebackinaclick." Blurr said and vanished and reappeared in a Speedy Gonzales style. Then the three cyber-ninja and Jack made their way towards the stronghold, while Prowl and Blurr took their position. Coup and Airazor got ready to assist if need be.

Five minutes later, the cubes Blurr placed opened fire at the Vehicons. The drones, thinking it was the Autobot resistance, fired at the building, not realizing they were shooting at something that wasn't there. Blurr joined in, firing like mad and changing position every few seconds. Arcee, Inferno, Kyujutsu and Jack made their way towards the stronghold, sneaking quickly. And whenever some Vehicon noticed them, they were taken down, courtesy of Prowl's sniping. And in all this chaos, the four managed to get through the crack in the wall.

But none knew of a ratbat hovering above the stronghold, observing everything.

* * *

**Kaon**

Shockwave and Blitzwing were surprised to find the Autobots sneak into the stronghold. Why would they do that? Their computer identified the whole group, aside for the smallest one, and Blitzwing was already working on the best strategy, whilst the one-eyed Decepticon attempted to contact Megatron and report the situation. The holographic screen appeared right above the computerized desk and before his optic, soon showing the face of his Lord and master, Megatron Absolute.

"/_Shockwave? What is it?_/" he asked with some impatience. Megatron must be working on some serious project if he found Shockwave's contact irritating.

"-Forgive me, my Lord, but we have a situation I believe you should be made aware of.-" Shockwave bowed his helm in an apologetic manner. Seeing as Megatron had nothing to say, he continued. "-A team of Autobots is attacking the Stronghold of Primes. We have identified some of the Bots.-" He typed in the command, having Megatron see the footage of the Autobots. The warlord's optics widened when he focused on Arcee.

"/-_The femme is on Cybertron?-_/" Megatron questioned out loud. "/-_Why is she there? It's not like...-_/" a thought crossed his processor. He wanted the Key to Vector Sigma, yet it was not in Prime's possession. And considering the Bots will try to recover their precious Optimus... "/-_Shockwave! Blitzwing! That femme, Arcee, must have the Key to Vector Sigma! They must be looking for the damn super computer itself!-_/"

Blitzwing, hearing that, seized his activity and focused on Megatron's transmission. "-But, my Lord, Vector Sigma is located in the Iacon Grand Archive, is it not?-"

"/-_That's the official story. In reality it was always in the Stronghold. Now get them!-_/" he commanded.

"-As you command, my Lord.-" Blitzwing bowed, along with Shockwave. "-I shall send the Combaticons.-"

"/-_Actually I have someone more suitable for the task in mind.-_/" Megatron said with a dark tone. "/-_Someone who will bring her in the desired state.-_/"

* * *

**Iacon, Stronghold of Primes**

The four finally entered the stronghold. Arcee had to admit the place was 'whoa, just... whoa' as Jack put it. The hall was huge. So huge, the whole structure seemed hollow. There was only a pillar of light was in the middle of the whole room. And in it what seemed like eight thrones transformed into mosaics of their Primes. Arcee was a bit confused about the idea behind the whole building, when she realized her two fellow cyber-ninja were already looking around.

"Alright, Jack. What's the Key telling you now?" She asked the human adolescent, who finally snapped out of his trans.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He raised the shard and looked at it. To his surprise, it seemed to stop glowing. "This is strange. It's not showing anything." He said. Then started to walk around, hoping it would shine again at the right moment.

"Great. Just what we need." Kyujutsu growled. "Keep looking around. There's gotta be something like a trap door."

"/_Head's up, you lads._/" Coup reported via comm.-link. "/_We've got company. A strong one at that._/"

"Stunticons?" Arcee asked.

"/_Nope. These losers have been taken down by Superion about a fifty stellar cycles ago. It's the Combaticons._/"

* * *

Now that was worse. It was the worst. The Combaticons were amongst Megatron's elite. One of the strongest combiners. Before the Great War, the Combaticons served in the Vok Wars, only to turn traitor, attempting a coup d'état. Fortunately, Zeta Prime, who ruled at the time, managed to bring them down personally and sentenced them for dismantling. However, once Megatron started the war, he had them freed. They did not like the idea of serving him, but had no choice when the Decepticon Lord proved his superiority and willingness to kill them personally.

Their leader was Onslaught, a strategic genius and a master of combat, both melee and long range. A green-and-blue Decepticon transforming into a Cybertronian missile truck. Then there was Brawl, the groups sharp shooter, sniper, in short long-range combat specialist. A brown-and-green ill-tempered Decepticon who transformed into a Cybertronian tank. Swindle, a Brown Decepticon with little violet here-and-there, was the stock and weapon specialist, though he was more interested into simply making some profit, selling what he could steal or salvage, avoiding any fighting by making a quick run for his spark in his Cybertronian car form.

Then there were the two flyers in this group- Vortex and Blastoff. Vortex was Blue-and-black 'Con with love in his speciality- intimidation. He was sadistic cruel. He transformed into a Cybertronian equivalent of a helicopter. Blastoff, on the other hand, the brown-and-black Combaticon, who transformed into a space shuttle, was a loner of the group, usually serving as team's scout and air support.

But there were also Vehicons along with them. This did not look good in the old Autobot's optics. "Everyone! We're gonna have company!" he alerted the team. Prowl seized his sniping and focused on the incoming Decepticon reinforcements. Airazor decided to act as well, so she transformed and launched into the air, towards the Decepticons.

"-Gentlemen.-" Onslaught started. "-That there is an example of how not to attack a Combaticon unit. Remember that for it is the greatest mistake one can make.-"

"-So, how do you want us to do this?-" Swindle asked.

"-The old fashioned way. Vortex! Blastoff! Deal with that flying pest!-"

"-Fine/ very well!-" the two answered, accelerating and heading directly at the femme.

Prowl, however, was backing her up, shooting at the two. As Airazor opened fire, the 'Con flyers were easily dodging, returning fire. Finally they hit her. Airazor cried in pain as she was falling.

"-Now let's show them what we can do.-" Onslaught ordered, and the five Combaticons were all heading into a single location, slowly transforming. "-Combaticons! Combine!-"

* * *

**The Stronghold of Primes**

Jack groaned in annoyance. "Where is it?" he asked out loud. "We've searched every inch of this place."

"Not every single one, boy." Inferno spoke. "There still that zone." He pointed at the pillar of light. Kyujutsu growled at the idea.

"You trying to kill him now, huh?" said, getting everybot's attention. "That zone is restricted to the Primes only. That energy field will block him out. Or actually, considering he's an organic, he'll likely burn."

"Still, it's the only place to search." The red cyber-ninja pointed. Jack looked at the pillar reluctantly, but what choice did he have? He walked towards it, much to Arcee's dismay.

"Jack, don't..." she warned, stopping him only a few inches away from the light. Jack just raised his hand and slowly reached towards the pillar. The teen closed his eyes, expecting to burn or otherwise. But he got nothing.

Surprisingly, his hand just passed. Jack then walked in, and to the surprise of others was unharmed. If anything, his appearance seemed different due to the field. His suit seemed to be composed of flames and electricity. But it did not hurt Jack at all.

Jack turned to his guardian, laughing at this. "Looks like with the Key in his possession, Jack is safe to enter." Arcee speculated.

Jack was about to say something, to comment on this, when a loud clank caught his attention. The cyber-ninja looked around, but found nothing. That is until the floor beneath Jack transformed. And Jack found himself lowered down, as the floor closed again, as if nothing ever happened, much to the surprise of Arcee and Inferno.

"Well... didn't see that one coming." Kyujutsu admitted with an awfully hilarious look of surprise plastered on his faceplate.

"-You speak in an interesting language, Autobot.-" a dark voice drew the three's attention. The trio turned towards the entrance, where they found a green-and-black Cybertronian muscle car with odd white graphics and spikes by its sides. Kyujutsu and Inferno's optics widened when they recognized that vehicle. Arcee was just confused. That is until it transformed.

Now standing before them was a 27 foot tall green-and-black Decepticon with lean lower torso and broad chest. He had about four spikes on the sides on his neck, five on each arm and six on each legs- two on his tights, one on his knee and two on his shins and one on his foot. His faceplate was as white as Earth's snow, with black markings on it painted in a fashion of a targeting circle. And the most distinctive feature of this 'Con was his right arm. It looked like a giant pincer.

"-Now, Autobots, I'll be taking the femme with me along with the Omega Key.-" he said, pointing his pincer, which opened transforming into a blaster.

"-Sorry to tell you this, Lockdown, but no deal.-" Inferno said, slashing his whips against the floor, forming a huge fireball launched at the Decepticon. But Lockdown merely stood there, not moving, not even fazed. He merely fired a single shot, which hit the fireball, causing it to disperse.

"-Have you already forgotten that I never take on an opponent without studying their strengths and weaknesses?-" Lockdown asked with a mocking smile.

"-Then you should know not to mess with us.-" Kyujutsu snarled, unsheathing his blades and electrocuting his servos as he leaped towards Lockdown, letting out a battle cry.

* * *

**Elsewhere...**

Jack looked around. He was on some kind of platform, slowly dropping down deeper into this alien darkness. He had no idea how long he's been going down, a few minutes maybe. He was getting scared, if he was to be honest. For one, he was going down to who knows where. It was Cybertron, not Earth. He had no idea where he would go. How to navigate on this planet. Second, Arcee was topside, probably fighting Decepticons. And while he believed she would give them a hard time, he wasn't foolish or Miko-ish enough to believe their numbers were meaningless against her. He could only hope he'd get to Vector Sigma fast.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he felt the platform stopped, and saw that that strange energy was no longer enveloping his suit. Jack looked at the shard again, and saw it was shining again. Deciding to follow he didn't travel far. He just turned around and found the Key now glow with a brilliant glow. In a manner of seconds, something not too far started to glow as well. To Jack's surprise it was a golden orb of some sort. That's when the Key slipped out of his hand, as if pulled by some greater force. And it inserted itself into that orb. Jack realized what was that.

He finally found Vector Sigma.

And it was getting on line. The orb started to levitate in the air as its shrine transformed into the floor. Then, it split in half. The halves started to transform into rings rotating around it's inner, copper shell, as the light was engulfing it. Jack was awestruck by this. He found it. He really was standing before the big V.

"Amazing, isn't it?" a voice asked. The human teen looked around, but found no one.

"W-who is there?" he asked. He wondered who said that.

"I did, young one." Jack turned again, looking at Vector Sigma. Could it be...?

"V-Vector Sigma?"

"Indeed. It was I who speaks to thee." The super computer answered.

"You're sentient?" Jack asked, mentally slapping himself for a stupid question.

"I am programmed with the memories of The Prime Council, collecting the memories and wisdom of all those who came after them. But Alpha Trion, once known as Alpha Prime, programmed me with the voice and personality of Nexus Prime, the Head of the Council, and greatest of them all."

"So, in a sense, you are Nexus?"

"No." Vector answered simply. "I merely commune with you simulating the said individual in purpose for better interaction. While I mean no offense, you humans would have a hard time having this conversation should I not be programmed to simulate someone."

"But you can..." he paused. He wanted to ask if the super computer could simulate others, but there was no time to play 20 questions. "N-nevermind. I seek knowledge..."

"You wish to find a way to heal Optimus Prime, who has been infected by the Hate Plague. Do you not, Jack Darby?"

To say Jack was shocked and surprised would be an understatement in the long history of understatements. "How do you know that?"

"The Key recorded all that has happened, also searching your memories. It is how I am also able to speak to you in English." Now that he mentioned it, Jack realized that Vector Sigma was indeed talking in perfect English. And Unlike Bulkhead, Ratchet, Ironhide, Arcee, Jetfire, Coup, Elita and Prowl, he spoke without what he believed to be Cybertronian accent.

* * *

**Earth, outside San Francisco city limits**

"That's it, Leroy. Easy now." One of the soldiers said. He was instructing the worker loading the cargo, while the other military were keeping watch. This was the one piece of tech they wouldn't allow to be taken. What was that hardware? Not their business. But clearly something big if it was from Powell Industries, the military competition to Sumdac Systems. Now they just had to transport it safely to another base. Being a delivery boy wasn't exactly what they signed up for, but somebody had to do the job. And should the Decepticons, for whatever freaking reason, be interested in stealing this, they would have a bit of a hard time. Because the military was going to transport this thing in a jet.

Too bad they weren't fast enough. Barricade, Airachnid and Ravage arrived. At first the soldiers were stunned. But after a few seconds they realized what's happening. So the humans pointed their guns and rocket launchers and pulled the trigger. Their firearms, however, did little to actually damage the trio. In fact, Airachnid just grew irritated and fired her webbing, sticking them to the ground, while Barricade and Ravage were slashing or stomping on the organics.

"Well, that was interesting." Airachnid commented. "Still, I would prefer to play with my little Jack instead."

"Well, consider this a little warm up." Barricade smirked. As he and the other two continued dealing with the humans, Leroy, who took cover reached for the phone.

* * *

**The Ark**

"... President himself was somewhat surprised to present the newest Secretary of Defense, the rising star of politics, Prometheus Black. According to some he may prove to be..."

Miko finally groaned. She's been listening to the news, on **politics**. She was so bored with the situation. "Jack, Arcee and Jetfire have been to Cybertron for three days now. Come on! Can't something start happening?" she asked.

"Well, we could go dune bashing." Bulkhead suggested.

"Nah, not in the mood." She replied.

"Umm... Are you sure you're not jealous about him going to Cybertron?" Raf asked, causing Miko to laugh hysterically. She looked like a mad girl from some cartoon, falling to the floor, kicking the air and punching the floor. Tears were even flowing down her cheeks.

"Guess we've got our answer right there." Terry whispered to Raf's ear.

Finally, Miko calmed down and got up on her feet. "I'm not jealous. I'm... just concerned about them. We got no phone calls, no e-mail, no fax, no SMS, no nothing."

"Cybertron is a place far in space. So far it's not even in any galaxy." Ratchet explained. "Tachyon transmitter of ours is still far from operational, so we have no way of contacting it."

"The best we can do now is wait." Ironhide summed it up.

"Great." Miko murmured.

Before anyone dared to say anything else, Agent Simmons's face appeared on screen. "/_Autobots. I hate to break it to you, but Deceptiscumbags just appeared in Fort Caster and are trying to steal the experimental super computer, Oracle._/" Simmons reported.

"On our way, dude." Jazz answered. "Have your compatres get out of there. Just for their safety."

* * *

**Fort Caster**

"Well, that was relatively easy. Barricade hardly even put in the fourth gear." The 'Con hunter said, dusting his servos.

"Let's just take the device and get out of here." Airachnid said irritated. "I don't like this kind of landscapes."

"Well to bad for you, sugar." A new voice caught her attention. When the She-spider turned around, she got punched in the faceplate. Airachnid flew back several feet, nearly crashing into Barricade, who just stepped aside. Jazz approached the trio with the other Bots following. "'Cause you're not takin' anythin' from here."

The Autobots appeared to have won this round. But when Barricade smiled, Bumblebee's optics narrowed. He started to bleep. "'Bee's right. Something's not right." Bulkhead whispered.

"You are correct for once, Bulkhead." A familiar voice said. The Autobots looked around and found a ground-bridge open, allowing a swarm of Vehicons to step out and surround them. Well, the drones themselves were not the problem. It was two other figures. Megatron Absolute and Nemesis Prime. The two walked out, slowly and confidently. Megatron's smile was all the Bots needed to see to know they were doomed.

It's a trap.

* * *

**Cybertron**

Jack was just standing there, gapping at Vector Sigma. If he was ever asked how does it feel to be in a presence of someone who knows everything, a god or otherwise, he would know the answer. Finally he snapped out of it, again.

"O-okay, so you can tell me how to help Optimus. Then, please, tell me." He begged.

"The knowledge will come after you touch the spark." Vector Sigma said, and a small spark floated out of it and towards the teen. "But in order to understand it, you need to have your brainwaves adjusted to think like a Cybertronian."

"I'll be mentally a Cybertronian?" Jack asked, confused. "Won't I go crazy or something?"

"You are part Cybertronian. With this, your intellectual capabilities, awareness and perception will be heightened to another level. Just enough to grasp the knowledge on the information necessary."

Jack was a bit hesitant. Something told him the minute he touched this little spark, he'll regret it. But he was here to safe Optimus. So if there was a chance to do that... He only hoped he'd be able to use this knowledge after he left. So, after mentally counting to three, and taking a deep breath, fighting the feeling he needs his energon shot, Jack closed his eyes and wrapped his fingers around the spark.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself floating. He was in a place he could only describe as space. But not cosmos. It was some other place. When he looked around, what he saw astounded him. There were... some kind of... fireflies flying around. Jack took a closer look at them and his eyes widened at what he saw. It was the Autobots, but different. In one of these fireflies, they appeared a little simpler, more rectangular, with Megatron being whole white aside for his tights and legs which were black and a gun barrel on his back. In the next one, he saw Optimus and Ratchet more similar to the ones he knew, fighting some kind of Cybertronian undead, with Megatron glowing purple and controlling these... Zombie-cons. Another firefly showed Prime with a golden faceguard and red optics fighting a green-and-gray Megatron with a tank turret on his back, fighting over a human-sized robot. Then there was a universe where there were no Cybertronians, but rather men in tights, mutants, human turtles fighting like ninja, a human fighting a pink humanoid with a planet-wrecking power and going blond. Another firefly then showed a world where Cybertronians were a fiction and one of the cultural icons. It took Jack a while, but finally realized what he was seeing.

The multiverse. And it was marvelous. It was even more than just multiverse, since Jack could see the Civil War, French Revolution and even a clearly younger and, surprisingly, cute version of Arcee from before the Great War. He also saw the timeline.

He would be willing to see that, but it was like looking through a thick fog. And never realized there was more than that. A black smoke slipped towards him, wrapping around Jack, surprising the boy. Why did he feel as if touched by something... evil? Jack looked around as the smoke enveloped him. And in a manner of seconds, he saw Autobots and Decepticons fighting one another, more brutally than he's ever seen them. Then the image shifted, showing Elita One, fighting some Vehicons, before being stabbed from behind. Jack felt the horror in him growing. He looked at the next image, showing Bulkhead, carrying Miko, running, only to suddenly get electrocuted, dropping the girl. Miko looked up to Bulkhead, only for a shadowy figure to zap her too. Then there was Optimus, who got punched through the chest and had his spark crushed in his torso, making him die in horrible pain. Jack back away, only to hear something.

"Jack..." Arcee's voice called. He looked around and found Arcee behind him, crawling, heavily damaged. "Help... me..." she begged, just before her head was knocked off like a golf ball. Jack gasped in horror. What was he seeing? He looked around, having no other choice but to watch the Autobots' death. Surprisingly, there were even Decepticons appearing. Just what was he seeing? Why did he now see his sister, tied up and...? His train of thoughts stopped to find the whole smoke gather, forming a figure. It grew larger and in details, until Jack had a feeling he was seeing the Cybertronian. Then the figures optics went online, blazing in a shade of red, Jack could feel the evil. From that thing with a large head. Jack finally realized who was that figure.

Megatronus Prime.

"Join us." The figure said, making Jack try to back away. "There is no other way." He added, and set aflame. He looked similar to Jack before he activated Vector Sigma. And to Jack's horror lifted Kelly up into the air with his ten fingered hand. Then grabbed her legs with the other limb.

"No..." Jack whispered. And Megatronus ripped her in two. "NOOOOOOOoooooo!" Jack cried. And things turned blank.

**To be continued...**

**A.N. Hiya guys. Another update. Finally. So, hope you like it. I was going to make this the final part of the Nemesis Prime arc, but decided to cut it here. Will be back eventually, with the conclusion. Please review the story or PM me with suggestions. Or let me know should I update this chapter with the rest of its intended contend. And yeah, those who watched 'The Clone Wars' have likely figured what inspored me for the vision scene. See ya.**

**My Cast:**

**Perceptor- **Tom Kane

**Wheeljack- **John DiMaggio

**Onslaught- **Richard Newman (voice of Captain Ginyu)

**Swindle- **James Woods

**Vortex**- Mark Hamill

**Blastoff**- David Sobolov

**Lockdown**- Brad Davidorf

**Vector Sigma/ Nexus Prime- **Liam Neeson

**Megatronus Prime**- Martin Sheen


End file.
